harsh sentences for nonviolent crimes

[50] Criminalization undermines the right to health, as fear of law enforcement can drive people who use drugs underground, deterring them from accessing health services and emergency medicine and leading to illness and sometimes fatal overdose. By 2001, eight more states had done the same.19 Timothy A. Hughes, Doris James Wilson & Allen J. Beck, Trends in State Parole, 1990-2000, Bureau of Justice Statistics (Oct. 2001). Do you have information you want to share with HuffPost? People in state and federal prisons for drug law violations today, up from less than 25,000 in 1980, Almost half of those in federal prison are incarcerated for a drug offense, Average time spent incarcerated for federal drug offenses jumped 153% between 1988 and 2012, More Imprisonment Does Not Reduce State Drug Problems, Between 1980 and 2011, arrests of African Americans for violent and property crimes fell, but. Although a trial judge initially sentenced him to 20 years in prison, the prosecutor filed two separate appeals, ultimately triggering an automatic sentencing mechanism that forced a federal judge to send Booker to prison for the rest of his life. Over comparable periods of time after offenders are released from prison versus probation, no differences in rates of further offenses are found a finding that holds whether offenders were originally sentenced for violent crimes or not. Prosecutors' use of mandatory minimums . People in state and federal prisons for drug law violations today, up from less than 25,000 in 19803 E. Ann Carson and Elizabeth Anderson, Prisoners in 2015, Bureau of Justice Statistics (2016); Tracy L. Snell, Correctional Populations in the United States, 1993, Bureau of Justice Statistics (1995). Drug addiction is not a criminal justice issue. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) are just some of the more prominent figures to take up the cause in Congress, and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has called for sweeping, systemic changes to a "broken" justice system, directing federal prosecutors to step away from drug cases. But they exploded as part of what the ACLU calls America's late-twentieth-century obsession with mass incarceration and extreme, inhumane penalties.. Before he was arrested at the age of 42, Craig Cesal's only conviction was a misdemeanor -- for carrying a beer into a Bennigan's when he was a college student. Twenty-five years later, at 47 years old, Booker is two decades deep into a life sentence in federal prison for three related, nonviolent drug crimes: possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute crack cocaine, and operating a "crack distribution house." Please give now to support our work, Written Testimony of Nicole Austin-Hillery Submitted to the US House Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee of Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, Share this via Facebook It required that a person convicted of a felony who has two or more prior convictions for certain offenses must be sentenced to at least 25 years to life in state prison, even if the third offense is nonviolent. Washington insisted at trial that the jerseys were reduced in a sale to $45 each which meant that their combined value was below the $100 needed to classify the theft as a felony; the prosecution disagreed, claiming they were on sale for $60 each, thus surpassing the $100 felony minimum and opening him up to a sentence of life without parole. And Dexter Jackson of Georgia, 52, received a pardon after admitting to allowing his business to be used to sell marijuana, even though he did not sell the drugs directly. The toll is not confined to the state level: most of those non-violent inmates held on life without parole sentences were given their punishments by the federal government. . Loss of employment and housing, threatened immigration status, and disqualification from welfare benefits, student loans, and certain licenses often condemn formerly incarcerated people and their families to lifelong poverty. On the same day Mr. Biden detailed the commutations, the Justice and Labor Departments announced a $145 million plan to provide job skills training to federal inmates to help them with employment after they are released. [63] Human Rights Watch, Nation Behind Bars, p. 1. Eight states (Arizona, Delaware, Kansas, Mississippi, Ohio, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin) abolished parole boards in 1994. The MORE Act removes marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act and begins to repair the harm marijuana prohibition has caused to millions of people, particularly people of color, by establishing a fund for social equity programs to reinvest in affected communities. After decades of tough on crime policies, there is growing recognition in the US that governments need to undertake meaningful criminal justice reform and that the war on drugs has failed. A vegan and a "Deadhead," Timothy Tyler was sentenced to two mandatory life without parole sentences for conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute LSD for mailing 5.2 grams of the drug to a confidential informant. Share this via WhatsApp Today he is still incarcerated in Angola, and will stay there for the rest of his natural life having been condemned to die in jail. Anthony was sentenced under Mississippis habitual offender laws; his two prior convictions were also nonviolent, minor drug crimes. [25] Data has consistently shown that Black and white adults use illicit drugs and marijuana at similar rates. Researchers compared convicted felons sentenced to prison in Michigan between 2003 and 2006 to other convicted felons sentenced to probation supervision in the community. Arrest Statistics Say No, New York Times, November 5, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/05/upshot/is-the-war-on-drugs-over-arrest-statistics-say-no.html(accessed March 9, 2021). [27] Human Rights Watch also found stark racial disparities in arrest rates for drug possession even in the same state or city. [66] The Justice Roundtable, Transformative Justice: Recommendations for the New Administration and 117th Congress, November 2020, https://justiceroundtable.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Transformative- Justice.pdf (accessed March 9, 2021), p. 44. 13, 1995). [32] A fresh and evidence-based rethinking of the drug war paradigm that includes moving away from criminalization of simple drug possession is needed. Mr. Bidens action comes amid growing consternation among some progressive groups that say the president has not focused enough on issues resonating in communities of color, such as voting rights or legislation to overhaul policing. Ive been waiting so long, said Mr. Bolden, who was in prison from 1966 to 1969. He was the target of a reverse sting operation in 1993 by a former associate who had come under DEA scrutiny. EJI won freedom for people who were sentenced to die in prison for non-violent drug offenses or other petty crimes. See US Department of Justice, Criminal Justice Information Services Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2019, Table 29 https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in- the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/topic-pages/persons-arrested and Persons Arrested data showing that 86.7 percent of arrests for drug abuse violations in 2019 were for possession https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the- u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/topic-pages/persons-arrested (accessed March 9, 2021); see also Human Rights Watch, Every 25 Seconds, p. 37. He served a year in prison and sold his truck to pay for legal fees. After setting out a definition of nonviolent crimes, this Part will detail the federal government's implementation of harsh sentencing policies for drug offenders in the 1980s and '90s, which resulted in many nonviolent life without parole sentences, and explore the climate in which those laws were passed. Much of the talk around criminal justice reform particularly when it comes from politicians focuses on the overly harsh sentences for nonviolent crimes like drug possession. Except in this case, apparently the lesson Texas wants us all to learn is we dont believe in rehabilitation for the crime of stealing a purse, Sauls was sentenced to 45 years in prison. Of the cases examined in "A Living Death: Life Without Parole for Nonviolent Offenses," the ACLU found at least 3,278 prisoners serving life-without-parole sentences for nonviolent crimes. Drug cases itemised in the report include a man sentenced to die in prison for having been found in possession of a crack pipe; an offender with a bottle cap that contained a trace of heroin that was too small to measure; a prisoner arrested with a trace amount of cocaine in their pocket too tiny to see with the naked eye; a man who acted as a go-between in a sale to an undercover police officer of marijuana street value $10. Ronald Washington, 48, is also serving life without parole in Angola, in his case for shoplifting two Michael Jordan jerseys from a Foot Action sportswear store in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 2004. [5] Human Rights Watch, Every 25 Seconds, p. 2. HuffPost's top politics stories, straight to your inbox. New violent offenses become more not less likely as a result of all these detrimental effects. [33] Any solutions should also include a focus on communities and the needs identified by community members themselves and not simply those identified by politicians and outside stakeholders. Loss of employment and housing, threatened immigration status, and disqualification from welfare benefits, student loans, and certain licenses often condemn formerly incarcerated people and their families to lifelong poverty. Researchers compared convicted felons sentenced to prison in Michigan between 2003 and 2006 to other convicted felons sentenced to probation supervision in the community. [16] Human Rights Watch, Every 25 Seconds, p. 3. But the now 47-year-old has been behind bars for almost 22 years, sentenced to life without parole for manufacturing and distributing crack cocaine when he was in his early 20s. Though the mandatory nature of the guidelines was found . [3] United States Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime in the United States, 2019, September 28, 2020, https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-releases-2019-crime-statistics (accessed March 8, 2021). Read more in David Harding, Jeffrey D. Morenoff, Anh P. Nguyen, Shawn D. Bushway, and Ingrid A. Binswagner, "A Natural Experiment Study of the Effects of Imprisonment on Violence in The Community," NatureHuman Behavior,(2019). [2] In 2019, there were 1.35 million arrests for drug possession in the US, up from 1.25 million in 2015, the number upon which Human Rights Watch relied in its Every 25 Seconds report. Advocates should push for alternative approaches to violence prevention than the handing down of harsh prison sentences, and policymakers would be wise to institute such changes. Our research found that, at the time, every 25 seconds in the United States, someone is arrested for the simple act of possessing drugs for their personal use. It required that a person convicted of a felony who has two or more prior convictions for certain offenses must be sentenced to at least 25 years to life in state prison, even if the third offense is nonviolent. May 29, 2023. As such, this can include a considerable range of different crimes, citations, and legal violations. Almost half of those in federal prison are incarcerated for a drug offense4 Bureau of Justice Statistics, Offenses (Oct. 5, 2019). Also in Texas, in 2010, Larry Dayries stole a tuna sandwich from Whole Foods while wielding a knife. The clemency grants issued by Mr. Biden on Tuesday were more than any of his immediate five predecessors at the same point in their presidencies, the White House said. She had no prior criminal record. And the U.S. is one of only 33 countries with mandatory increased penalties for offenders with prior convictions alone with Japan in representing the developed world. The ACLU's report, A Living Death, chronicles the thousands of lives ruined and families destroyed by the modern phenomenon of sentencing people to die behind bars for non-violent offences. . [2] Then and now, police in the United States make far more arrests for simple drug possession than for any other crime. Michael Fitzgerald Wilson was sentenced to life without parole as a first-time nonviolent drug offender in 1994. [6] Human Rights Watch, Every 25 Seconds, p. 2. This can happen for a variety of reasons. [23] Human Rights Watch, Decades of Disparity: Drug Arrests and Race in the United States (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2009), https://www.hrw.org/report/2009/03/02/decades-disparity/drug-arrests-and-race-united-states, pp. All rights reserved. However, these steps are simply not enoughit is time to have a real, honest and critical discussion about the criminalization of drug use and what steps must be taken to rethink reform. Drugs are present in the background of Timothy Jackson's case too. The thousands of nonviolent crimes that have resulted in LWOP sentences include possession of a crack pipe, a smudge of heroin in a bottle cap, and "a trace amount of cocaine in clothes pockets that was so minute it was invisible to the naked eye and detected only in lab tests," according to the report. Celebrating 60 Years of Gideon v. Wainwright, Three Years Later, COVID-19 is Still a Threat to People Who Are Incarcerated, From the Death Penalty to Marijuana, Clemency is a Tool For Justice, Hidden Taxes Don't Belong Anywhere, Least of All in Our Justice System, no clear effect on crime rates in the state, prison populations and crime rates go down significantly. Heres how. The Justice Safety Valve Act of 2019 which would allow courts to impose a sentence below a mandatory minimum if the court finds that it is necessary to do so in order to impose a sentence that is not greater than necessary to comply with the statutory purpose of sentencing laid out in 18 U.S.C. Human Rights Watch is a 501(C)(3)nonprofit registered in the US under EIN: 13-2875808. Join our movement today. Former President Bill Clinton commuted the sentence of the only white defendant involved in the case in 2001. States enacted laws that required people to serve at least 85% of their prison sentences and many abolished parole altogether. The impact of a drug conviction can, and often does, impact multiple facets of an individuals life beyond the experience of incarceration. [15], Governments and communities have a legitimate interest in preventing problematic substance use. Scott Walker got life without parole at the age of 26. Californias three strikes law passed in 1994. Bryant pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor. And, it seems, we incarcerate them for far longer. Studies comparing offenders that some judges give prison sentences while others give only probation demonstrate that imprisonment does little to prevent violence. The president of Uganda signed a punitive anti-gay bill on Monday that includes the death penalty, enshrining into law an intensifying crackdown against L.G.B.T.Q. [43], At the time of the Human Rights Watch/ACLU report in 2016, all US states and the federal government criminalized possession of certain categories of drugs for personal use. Nearly one in five people in state prisons and jails are there for drug offenses.[19]. The preventative effect of imprisoning a non-violent felony offender is even smaller (specifically, 40 non-violent offenders must be imprisoned to prevent a single individual from committing a violent felony over five years). Those backlogs grew under former President Donald J. Trump, who at times bypassed the usual clemency process that runs through the Justice Department, choosing instead to rely on his friends and allies for recommendations and using his pardons and commutations to benefit people with wealth and connections, including some who abused the power of elected offices. Stephanie Yvette George was sentenced to life in prison without parole at the age of 26 because of prior convictions for selling small amounts of crack cocaine. In Mississippi, a man was sentenced to 235 years in prison for nonviolent drug crimes. Some, like him, were given the . He wouldn't testify against his co-conspirators, but they testified against him and received reduced sentences. [65] Human Rights Watch, Nation Behind Bars, p. 8. Some might argue that these extreme sentencing policies would be justified by their effectiveness at dissuading would-be criminals. Actor Chuck Norris, who at the time was a volunteer police officer for the Kaufman County Sheriff's Department, reportedly participated in some of the arrests. Rudy Martinez got life in prison without parole for his first conviction at the age of 25. Its a health problem that should be managed by medical professionals. Today, almost half of the people in federal prison are incarcerated for a drug offenseand two-thirds of those are people of color.2 Marc Mauer, The Changing Racial Dynamics of the War on Drugs, The Sentencing Project 1 (Apr. It is time for the U.S. to commit to real sentencing reform. President Biden was set to use his clemency powers to help nonviolent drug offenders who had received harsh sentences rooted in a string of bills he had helped pass during his 36 years in the Senate. They say the reversal of policy is unwarranted and unfounded based on criminal science studies of the last two decades. Overly harsh sentencing, the report concludes, despite evidence that excessive penalties are counterproductive because they keep older prisoners behind bars who pose little physical threat; they divert funding from better public safety investments; and they have almost no deterrent effect as the best proven deterrent to crime is likelihood of . An overwhelming proportion of those sentences as many as 98% in Louisiana were mandatory: in other words judges had no discretion but to impose the swingeing penalties. [46] Criminalizing drugs is not an effective public safety policy. About half of that was earmarked for states that enacted stringent truth-in-sentencing lawsrequiring people to serve at least 85% of their prison sentences. 8, 2018). [14] Indeed, the last decade has seen a dramatic rise in overdose deaths, hitting over 81,000the highest number ever recorded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the year that ended in 2020, despite widespread criminalization of simple drug possession. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) both applauded tough sentencing laws, crediting those policies for the precipitous decline in the country's violent-crime rates over the last few decades. Your inbox of hard labor Bolden, who was in prison for non-violent drug offenses other! Him and received reduced sentences sting operation in 1993 by a former associate who had under! Less likely as a first-time nonviolent drug crimes New York Times, November 5, 2019 https... 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