Biden gave 80 full pardons. The other 4165 were commutations.
The difference is that a full pardon effectively negates the conviction (or prevents conviction if granted to someone not yet convicted). Any rights lost due to the felony conviction such as voting rights, firearm rights, holding some public offices, and such are restored.
A commutation merely reduces the sentence, sometimes to time already served so that the person is immediately released, and sometimes to a lesser sentence but not on that will result in earlier release (e.g., a President could commute a death sentence to life without parole). It does not restore any rights that were lost due to the felony conviction.
Most of Biden's commutations were for non-violent drug possession, with a large fraction of those being for marijuana. Many of these were for cases that nowadays would not even have been prosecuted.
Compare to Trump. Almost 1600 of his were full pardons for January 6 people. Only 14 of them were commutations, which were to time served.
The difference is that a full pardon effectively negates the conviction (or prevents conviction if granted to someone not yet convicted). Any rights lost due to the felony conviction such as voting rights, firearm rights, holding some public offices, and such are restored.
A commutation merely reduces the sentence, sometimes to time already served so that the person is immediately released, and sometimes to a lesser sentence but not on that will result in earlier release (e.g., a President could commute a death sentence to life without parole). It does not restore any rights that were lost due to the felony conviction.
Most of Biden's commutations were for non-violent drug possession, with a large fraction of those being for marijuana. Many of these were for cases that nowadays would not even have been prosecuted.
Compare to Trump. Almost 1600 of his were full pardons for January 6 people. Only 14 of them were commutations, which were to time served.