T
The420Guy
Guest
As a lame-duck president with no political capital at risk, President
Clinton has an opportunity to restore fairness and common sense to the way
this country treats nonviolent, small-time drug offenders.
A coalition of more than 650 clergy members from the major denominations
has appealed to him to commute the egregiously long jail terms handed out
by federal judges operating under mandatory-minimum sentencing laws that
offer precious little leeway in making the punishment fit the crime.
Eric Sterling, president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation,
estimates that 24,000 of the current 146,000 federal prisoners are
low-level drug offenders, with no violence on their records, no involvement
in sophisticated criminal activity and no prior commitment. Sterling, who
as counsel to the House Judiciary Committee when these mandatory-minimum
sentencing laws were written, says that "none of us envisioned" the
incarceration rate soaring as a result.
He said the goal of these laws was to put high-level traffickers, including
international traffickers, behind bars. But only 11 percent or 12 percent
of the drug prisoners are high-level traffickers. He says the Justice
Department has squandered its resources in rounding up gangs of low-level
and mid-level dealers.
Some of those caught in drug conspiracies are serving barbarically long
sentences. Here are two examples.
Dorothy Gaines, a widow with three children, is serving a 20-year sentence
for conspiracy to possess and distribute crack cocaine.
A search of her Alabama home produced no evidence of drug activity.
Federal prosecutors relied on drug dealers who testified against her to get
their own sentences reduced.
Gaines has been in prison since March 10, 1995. Her oldest daughter left
college to raise her siblings.
Another case that has caught the public's attention is that of 26-year-old
Kemba Smith, who became involved in an abusive relationship with a man who,
unbeknown to her, had been running a drug ring since 1989. The prosecution
admitted in court that she did not use or handle cocaine.
Smith, a junior at Virginia's Hampton University, was five months pregnant
in August 1994 when she heard that she had been indicted as part of a drug
conspiracy. Her boyfriend was killed in Seattle in October 1994. Smith did
not even know the boyfriend when the conspiracy began and did not sell any
drugs, but she was held accountable for the entire 255 kilograms in cocaine
sales attributed to the drug ring. She was sentenced accordingly to 24
years in prison, with no possibility of parole.
The only way for drug offenders to escape mandatory sentences is to provide
"substantial assistance" to the prosecutors who are going after other drug
violators. That is patently unfair: Ringleaders of drug conspiracies have
plenty of colleagues they can rat out. Low-level dealers and their
girlfriends, who are often caught up in drug dragnets, don't know enough to
strike a deal.
These laws were passed in the mid-1980s at the height of the crack epidemic
and its accompanying violence.
The laws inflict much harsher punishment for selling crack than selling
powder cocaine, resulting in much higher rates and longer terms of
incarceration for African Americans than for others.
Clinton acknowledged this problem in an interview published last week in
Rolling Stone. "I think the sentences in many cases are too long for
nonviolent offenders," he said. "I think the sentences are too long and the
facilities are not structured to maximize success when the people get out."
Clinton commented that the great majority of federal judges want to do away
with mandatory-minimum sentences, and he called for a reexamination of them
at the very least. "The disparities are unconscionable between crack and
powdered cocaine," he said.
Clinton came out in favor of decriminalizing possession of small amounts of
marijuana, and he came out against the federal law that bars drug offenders
from having access to college loans.
He said he did not believe, by and large, in "permanent lifetime
penalties." He noted that as governor, he pushed through a change in the
law in Arkansas so that people who had served their jail terms could have
their voting privileges restored.
He supports a bill pending in Congress that would do the same for federal
prisoners.
As the outgoing president, Clinton has the freedom to promote discussion
about things other politicians dare not get near. The war on drugs and the
concomitant growth in the prison industry are two topics on which the
public is far ahead of the politicians. The public now supports treatment,
education and rehabilitation for low-level drug offenders rather than
long-term incarceration: the overwhelming success of state initiatives that
take that tack shows where the trend is going.
The call for clemency is coming from the Coalition for Jubilee Clemency,
which points out that 2000 is a jubilee year, an occasion that comes every
50 years in the Christian and Jewish traditions and that is marked by
forgiveness of debt and the liberation of prisoners.
There is powerful symmetry in the coalition's argument, particularly if you
consider the facts the coalition point outs: There are about 500,000 people
in prisons for drug offenses in the United States, or 100,000 more
prisoners than in all of the jails of the 12 countries of the European
Union. The EU has 100 million more people than the United States. But the
most tragic figure of all cited by the coalition is this: There are 600,000
children in the United States who have parents in jail for drug offenses.
The Justice Department has standards for determining who is a low-level,
nonviolent drug offender.
No one expects Clinton to grant clemency to thousands upon thousands of
prisoners.
But there are people, such as Gaines and Smith whose cases cry out for mercy.
Clinton has the power to grant it, and he should.
_____________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Terry F
Newshawk: Cannabis News - marijuana, hemp, and cannabis news
Pubdate: Fri, 15 Dec 2000
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2000 The Washington Post Company
Contact: letters@washpost.com
Address: 1150 15th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20071
Feedback: https://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Website: Washington Post: Breaking News, World, US, DC News & Analysis
Author: Judy Mann
Clinton has an opportunity to restore fairness and common sense to the way
this country treats nonviolent, small-time drug offenders.
A coalition of more than 650 clergy members from the major denominations
has appealed to him to commute the egregiously long jail terms handed out
by federal judges operating under mandatory-minimum sentencing laws that
offer precious little leeway in making the punishment fit the crime.
Eric Sterling, president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation,
estimates that 24,000 of the current 146,000 federal prisoners are
low-level drug offenders, with no violence on their records, no involvement
in sophisticated criminal activity and no prior commitment. Sterling, who
as counsel to the House Judiciary Committee when these mandatory-minimum
sentencing laws were written, says that "none of us envisioned" the
incarceration rate soaring as a result.
He said the goal of these laws was to put high-level traffickers, including
international traffickers, behind bars. But only 11 percent or 12 percent
of the drug prisoners are high-level traffickers. He says the Justice
Department has squandered its resources in rounding up gangs of low-level
and mid-level dealers.
Some of those caught in drug conspiracies are serving barbarically long
sentences. Here are two examples.
Dorothy Gaines, a widow with three children, is serving a 20-year sentence
for conspiracy to possess and distribute crack cocaine.
A search of her Alabama home produced no evidence of drug activity.
Federal prosecutors relied on drug dealers who testified against her to get
their own sentences reduced.
Gaines has been in prison since March 10, 1995. Her oldest daughter left
college to raise her siblings.
Another case that has caught the public's attention is that of 26-year-old
Kemba Smith, who became involved in an abusive relationship with a man who,
unbeknown to her, had been running a drug ring since 1989. The prosecution
admitted in court that she did not use or handle cocaine.
Smith, a junior at Virginia's Hampton University, was five months pregnant
in August 1994 when she heard that she had been indicted as part of a drug
conspiracy. Her boyfriend was killed in Seattle in October 1994. Smith did
not even know the boyfriend when the conspiracy began and did not sell any
drugs, but she was held accountable for the entire 255 kilograms in cocaine
sales attributed to the drug ring. She was sentenced accordingly to 24
years in prison, with no possibility of parole.
The only way for drug offenders to escape mandatory sentences is to provide
"substantial assistance" to the prosecutors who are going after other drug
violators. That is patently unfair: Ringleaders of drug conspiracies have
plenty of colleagues they can rat out. Low-level dealers and their
girlfriends, who are often caught up in drug dragnets, don't know enough to
strike a deal.
These laws were passed in the mid-1980s at the height of the crack epidemic
and its accompanying violence.
The laws inflict much harsher punishment for selling crack than selling
powder cocaine, resulting in much higher rates and longer terms of
incarceration for African Americans than for others.
Clinton acknowledged this problem in an interview published last week in
Rolling Stone. "I think the sentences in many cases are too long for
nonviolent offenders," he said. "I think the sentences are too long and the
facilities are not structured to maximize success when the people get out."
Clinton commented that the great majority of federal judges want to do away
with mandatory-minimum sentences, and he called for a reexamination of them
at the very least. "The disparities are unconscionable between crack and
powdered cocaine," he said.
Clinton came out in favor of decriminalizing possession of small amounts of
marijuana, and he came out against the federal law that bars drug offenders
from having access to college loans.
He said he did not believe, by and large, in "permanent lifetime
penalties." He noted that as governor, he pushed through a change in the
law in Arkansas so that people who had served their jail terms could have
their voting privileges restored.
He supports a bill pending in Congress that would do the same for federal
prisoners.
As the outgoing president, Clinton has the freedom to promote discussion
about things other politicians dare not get near. The war on drugs and the
concomitant growth in the prison industry are two topics on which the
public is far ahead of the politicians. The public now supports treatment,
education and rehabilitation for low-level drug offenders rather than
long-term incarceration: the overwhelming success of state initiatives that
take that tack shows where the trend is going.
The call for clemency is coming from the Coalition for Jubilee Clemency,
which points out that 2000 is a jubilee year, an occasion that comes every
50 years in the Christian and Jewish traditions and that is marked by
forgiveness of debt and the liberation of prisoners.
There is powerful symmetry in the coalition's argument, particularly if you
consider the facts the coalition point outs: There are about 500,000 people
in prisons for drug offenses in the United States, or 100,000 more
prisoners than in all of the jails of the 12 countries of the European
Union. The EU has 100 million more people than the United States. But the
most tragic figure of all cited by the coalition is this: There are 600,000
children in the United States who have parents in jail for drug offenses.
The Justice Department has standards for determining who is a low-level,
nonviolent drug offender.
No one expects Clinton to grant clemency to thousands upon thousands of
prisoners.
But there are people, such as Gaines and Smith whose cases cry out for mercy.
Clinton has the power to grant it, and he should.
_____________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Terry F
Newshawk: Cannabis News - marijuana, hemp, and cannabis news
Pubdate: Fri, 15 Dec 2000
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2000 The Washington Post Company
Contact: letters@washpost.com
Address: 1150 15th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20071
Feedback: https://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Website: Washington Post: Breaking News, World, US, DC News & Analysis
Author: Judy Mann