Obama pardons 111 prisoners and hit record US

US President Barack Obama, granted on Tuesday (30) pardon to 111 prisoners, small drug dealers in most cases, establishing a record of presidential pardons in a single month - the White House.

These 111 pardons are added to other 214 approved by Obama throughout this month, totaling 325 in August. Obama increasingly uses this feature.

In his two terms, the US president made use of this gesture 673 times, more than any of his ten predecessors. It puts into practice its request for penal reform to grant "a second chance".

It is considered that the detainees who benefited from these penalty commutations do not pose a danger to society. Most sell drugs at retail.

In some cases, they are given long sentences, due to a very repressive criminal justice system and what is now denounced as excessive.

Some even fulfilled life sentences. This is the case of 35 of the 111 convicts benefited from pardons.

Obama declared himself in favor of alternatives to imprisonment for the perpetrators of minor crimes. In the United States, more than 2.2 million people behind bars, with a predominance of drug addicts among marginalized minorities.