U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder testifies about his FY2015 budget request at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington April 3, 2014. 
 
 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Justice Department will widen the criteria it uses to decide which drug offenders to recommend to the president for clemency, Attorney General Eric Holder said on Monday. 
 
 The department expects thousands of drug offenders currently serving time to be eligible for reduced sentences under the new clemency guidelines and it will prepare to review an influx of applications, Holder said in a video address. 
 
 Under U.S. law, the president can reduce sentences or pardon Americans serving sentences for federal crimes. The Justice Department will now recommend more candidates for the president's consideration. 
 
 Details of the new criteria will be announced later this week by Deputy Attorney General James Cole. 
 
 Holder hinted the guidelines may include applying a 2010 law that reduced sentences for crack cocaine offenders to those sentenced before the law was enacted. 
 
 "There are still too many people in federal prison who were sentenced under the old regime and who, as a result, will have to spend far more time in prison than they would if sentenced today for exactly the same crime," Holder said in his address. 
 
 White House spokesman Jay Carney said at a press briefing on Monday that President Barack Obama asked the Department of Justice to widen the clemency guidelines. 
 
 "The president wants to make sure that everyone has a fair shot into the clemency system, and he has asked the Department of Justice to set up a process aimed at ensuring that anyone who has a good case for commutation has their application seen and evaluated thoroughly," Carney said. 
 
 Granting clemency to nonviolent drug offenders is part of the Obama administration's strategy to reduce spending on federal prisons by reducing the number of inmates serving time for nonviolent drug crimes. 
 
 Last year, Holder launched the "Smart on Crime" initiative to review the criminal justice system and look for ways to make spending on prisons more efficient by focusing on violent offenders. 
 
 Some Republicans in Congress say more lenient sentences would reverse a drop in crime seen in recent decades. 
 
 In 2010, nearly half of 216,000 federal inmates were serving time for drug-related crimes, according to Department of Justice data. 
 
 (Reporting By Julia Edwards, additional reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Paul Simao) ||||| Attorney General Eric Holder announced new clemency guidelines. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images) 
 
 WASHINGTON — Thousands of federal offenders could become eligible for clemency consideration by President Obama under new guidelines set to be released later this week by the Justice Department. 
 
 Attorney General Eric Holder, in a video message posted Monday on the Justice website, said the expanded program will allow the president to consider clemency requests from "a larger field of eligible individuals.'' 
 
 The Justice Department's action comes less than a week after the White House asked the department to revamp the rules for the solicitation of additional commutation and pardon requests. 
 
 "Once these reforms go into effect, we expect to receive thousands of additional applications for clemency,'' Holder said, adding that "potentially dozens of (department) lawyers'' would be assigned to review the anticipated wave of requests. 
 
 The effort is part of a larger strategy to reduce the bloated federal prison population and reverse past sentencing policies that doomed many offenders, including thousands of non-violent drug offenders, to disproportionately long terms. 
 
 In January, Deputy Attorney General James Cole appealed to state bar associations to help identify low-level, non-violent drug offenders who could be candidates for grants of clemency. 
 
 "As a society, we pay much too high a price whenever our system fails to deliver the just outcomes necessary to deter and punish crime, to keep us safe, and to ensure that those who have paid their debts have a chance to become productive citizens,'' Holder said. 
 
 Advocates for sentencing policy changes involving drug offenders expressed support for Holder's proposal. 
 
 "This would be a positive step toward righting the wrongs of our broken criminal justice system,'' Drug Policy Alliance spokesman Anthony Papa said. "With half a million people still behind bars on non-violent drug charges, clearly thousands are deserving of a second chance. Congress should act immediately to reduce the draconian federal mandatory minimum sentences that condemn thousands to decades behind bars for non-violent drug offenses.'' 
 
 Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., said he was "encouraged'' by the proposed expansion of clemency consideration. 
 
 "After years of advocating on behalf of Americans who are unfairly incarcerated, the policies that I've encouraged the president and the attorney general to adopt are now being implemented,'' Cohen said. "I am very encouraged by the prospect that these new clemency criteria will give deserving non-violent drug offenders a second chance at freedom, improve our justice system and save taxpayers money.'' 
 
 The National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys, which represents more than 5,000 federal prosecutors, has announced its opposition to scaling back mandatory minimum sentencing policy. But the group has not expressed opposition to the administration's clemency proposals. 
 
 White House spokesman Jay Carney said the number of commutations granted "will depend entirely on the number of worthy candidates.'' 
 
 "And in terms of how many deserving candidates are out there, I couldn't begin to speculate,'' he said. "But there's a process in place that reflects the president's belief that everyone should have a fair shot under the system for consideration.'' 
 
 Contributing: David Jackson 
 
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– Thousands of nonviolent drug offenders now serving long sentences in federal prisons could receive clemency from President Obama under a major Department of Justice overhaul. Attorney General Eric Holder announced yesterday that "a larger field of eligible individuals" will be eligible for clemency under new guidelines and the administration is preparing for a flood of requests, reports USA Today, which notes that the move is part of a broader effort to reduce the federal prison population and correct past sentencing disparities. Holder said the White House is seeking "justice, fairness, and proportionality for deserving individuals who do not pose a threat to public safety." Holder hinted that those eligible will include inmates sentenced for crack cocaine offenses before a 2010 law reduced what was called a racist disparity, reports Reuters. "There are still too many people in federal prison who were sentenced under the old regime and who, as a result, will have to spend far more time in prison than they would if sentenced today for exactly the same crime," he said. White House spokesman Jay Carney said he didn't want to speculate on how many inmates will qualify for clemency, but there is a "process in place that reflects the president's belief that everyone should have a fair shot under the system for consideration.''