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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Drugs Prison Letter of the Day

Posted by Brendan Kiley on Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 12:49 PM

Since I started working on this story about crack sentencing guidelines, I've been receiving bunches of email, via Corrlinks, from people serving various sentences related to crack-cocaine charges. I thought I'd share a few:

Hi Brendan,

My name is M., and I wanted to share my story with u... I've been incarcerated now for over two decades. In 1991, I was arrested on conspiracy to distribute cocaine base (crack) and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, and in commission of a drug offense. In the actual bust about 63 grams and $7,000 was recovered. At sentencing, through a process called "relevant conduct", this amount was ratcheted up to 1.4 kilograms. What happens here is the Feds gather as many statements as they can from individuals saying you sold them a certain quantity. In exchange for their statements and testimony they offer them time cuts or dismissal of pending charges. Anyone can get on this bus, and they do. So u end up with what the Feds call a "conservative estimate" of what they think u were responsible for, which is mostly lies fabricated by individuals who were promised favors for their cooperation and will say whatever it takes. The reason this is so significant is because the quantity of drugs attributed to u determines where your sentence starts b4 other enhancements r added.

For example, with the 1.4 KG of crack my sentence started at 188 mos...after criminal history enhancements were added...324 months...and then for possessing the weapon...384 mos was my total sentence

Thank u for your interest...I hope my account has been helpful to your story or whatever u plan to do. Take care.

Our correspondent has passed the halfway mark of his 32-year term in Elkton, Ohio.

Comments (19) RSS

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And Joe Cassano walks the streets, a free man.

Posted by maddogm13 on November 29, 2011 at 12:53 PM

Drugs won the war on drugs decades ago.

http://store.theonion.com/product/drugs-…

Posted by Urgutha Forka on November 29, 2011 at 12:56 PM

Am I the only one whose glad this guy is locked up?

Posted by Ken Mehlman on November 29, 2011 at 1:07 PM

wait, inmates have access to the interwebs? i thought prison was supposed to be a punishment.

Posted by scary tyler moore

on November 29, 2011 at 1:21 PM

@3: yes.

Posted by Max Solomon on November 29, 2011 at 1:26 PM

@3: No.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty

on November 29, 2011 at 1:40 PM

@3: Maybe so.

Posted by venomlash on November 29, 2011 at 1:52 PM

@3: Depends what the meaning of "is" is (glad he's off the street, glad he's available to highlight the injustice of drug laws, glad he's blog fodder on a slow news day, etc.).

Posted by rob!

on November 29, 2011 at 2:04 PM

@3, the fact there is a weapon enhancement makes me glad he's locked up.

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on November 29, 2011 at 2:14 PM

Did the feds also add a couple months to his sentence for crimes against grammar? I'd be a little more sympathetic if he used "you" and "are" instead of "u" and "r".

Posted by SPG on November 29, 2011 at 2:27 PM

are you glad he's locked up for 32 years? if his letter is to be believed, he apparently didn't kill or rape anyone.

therefore, i'm not glad that he's STILL locked up. keeping someone in prison is fucking expensive and i'm sick of paying the Prison Industrial Complex for it when it serves no further purpose. the point is probably made after 20 years.

Posted by Max Solomon on November 29, 2011 at 2:50 PM

@4, inmates in low-security facilities like "work camps" usually have limited net access, including Corrlinks, which is a monitored email service. They can't do much on the internet, but they can e-mail.

Posted by More, I Say! on November 29, 2011 at 2:59 PM

@11 In a case like this it's not so much about what he's done as about what he probably would do if he were released. Habitual criminals seldom change their ways. It has been my experience that all but the lowest level drug offenders are men of violence. They have to be because they live outside the law. As an eminent attorney said of the gangsters of the Prohibition era "they can not respond to a breach of contract or unfair competition by filing a lawsuit, so they shoot."

Posted by Ken Mehlman on November 29, 2011 at 4:01 PM

@ 13. Another argument for ending drug prohibition! Thanks, Ken!

Posted by Brendan Kiley on November 29, 2011 at 4:22 PM

Compare and contrast with the 4-year sentence of Dr. Feelgood, Conrad Murray, almost certainly to be reduced to two years because of CA's budget-crisis early-release waterslide. Dollars to doughnuts he finds another artiste to be his sole client following his release, provided he doesn't lose his medical license.

Posted by rob!

on November 29, 2011 at 5:06 PM

@13: so he'd return to crime NOW, after 20 years in prison, but after 32 years he wouldn't? or would he return to crime after 32 years also?

if he hadn't dealt CRACK, but had dealt simple, caucasoid-preferred cocaine, he'd be out already, gun or no gun. that was the point of the article i do believe.

Posted by Max Solomon on November 29, 2011 at 5:07 PM

@16 I think the sentencing guidelines for crack cocaine were too harsh and often resulted in excessive prison sentences. However, in this case the result seems reasonable.

Posted by Ken Mehlman on November 29, 2011 at 6:14 PM

@13, You're highlighting a fundamental problem with our prison system as it stands now, functioning as a punitive measure. Perhaps if we were more interested in rehabilitation and giving prisoners life-skills as opposed to punishment, we wouldn't see near so many repeat offenders.

People like M have been triply failed by the system we have. First, by our overstrained, underfunded education system, which failed to give him the skills necessary for much beyond dead-end minimum wage jobs (you don't deal crack unless your options are that limited), and second, by a legal system encouraged to mete out as much punishment as possible, and third, by our overcrowded prison system which does little to prepare inmates for life once their sentences are up, ensuring the cycle will repeat.

Posted by samktg on November 29, 2011 at 6:25 PM