RALEIGH, (SGRToday.com) - President Barack Obama has communited the sentences of 61 prisoners. That brings to 248 the number of people he has released due to what the administration calls "outdated and unduly harsh sentences."

"Despite the progress we have made, it is important to remember that clemency is nearly always a tool of last resort that can help specific individuals, but does nothing to make our criminal justice system on the whole more fair and just," said White House Counsel to the President Neil Eggleston in a statement posted to whitehouse.gov.

"Clemency of individual cases alone cannot fix decades of overly punitive sentencing policies. So while we continue to work to resolve as many clemency applications as possible – and make no mistake, we are working hard at this – only broader criminal justice reform can truly bring justice to the many thousands of people behind bars serving unduly harsh and outdated sentences."

The Washington Post reports the list includes three North Carolinians:

-- Reginald Wendell Boyd of Greensboro

-- Christopher Tim Florence of Chapel Hill

-- Alohondra Rey Staton of Greenville