AlterNet: Crack Users Do More Time Than People Convicted of Manslaughter

[marmar]

Crack Users Do More Time Than People Convicted of Manslaughter

By Jessica Pupovac, AlterNet. Posted October 17, 2007.


When crack cocaine possession means 24 years in prison and manslaughter means only 3, you know something is seriously wrong with the U.S. criminal justice system.


The death of Alva Mae Groves on Aug. 9 of this year went largely unnoticed outside of her family and fellow inmates at the Tallahassee Federal Corrections Institution, where she lived out the last 13 years of her life. She never went to high school, lived her entire life dirt-poor and raised her nine children for the most part without the help of her abusive husband.

In 1994 Alva Mae "Granny" Groves was locked up for conspiring to trade crack cocaine for food stamps. It was largely her son, whose trailer home she lived in, who ran an operation that her family and neighbors contested, but some customers testified that Alva Mae would sell them small bags when he wasn't around.

"The only money I received came from SSI (Supplementary Security Income) and what money I could earn selling eggs from my laying hens (I had about 100 chickens)," Alva Mae wrote shortly before her death in a letter asking for a pardon so that she could die near her family. "I also cleaned houses when I was able, and sold candy bars and soft drinks to the kids coming from school in the afternoons."

Because she refused to testify against her son, and because of the money she had saved in the bank, which was weighed against her for its value in crack, and most of all because of the current sentencing system for crack cocaine offenders, Groves was condemned to 24 years in jail at the age of 72.

In 1986, Congress passed a law that established an unprecedented five-year mandatory minimum sentence for anyone found in possession of two sugar packets worth of crack, regardless of whether or not that person had a criminal record. Beyond the minimum, additional "sentencing guidelines" tack on extra months or even years for obstruction of justice (which, in some cases, means refusing to admit guilt), whether or not there was a weapon on the premises and prior convictions.

Crack cocaine is treated more harshly than any other drug on the streets right now, mostly because of the "tough on crime" response that was en vogue at the time of its introduction. Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, a D.C.-based advocacy group that works for fairness in sentencing, explained that Congress attributed the sentencing tiers at the time to a desire to "protect the black community." ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/rights/65406/

[zabet]

1. This is soooo wrong...

especially is this case.

I personally wish they would lower the '2 sugar pack' amount limit. Around here
the average crack-head cannot afford that much crack at the time. The crack heads
have no money to pay court costs, fines and attorneys' fees so here, unless they
have property, they are never arrested (the users). The local police caught one
crackhead smoking acoss the street from the courthouse - they did not arrest him, did
not take his drugs, they carried him back to the carwash he worked at part time and told
his boss man to keep him out of the middle of town whenever he was smoking crack.
I asked one deputy why this attitude towards crack users. He told me it was not cost
effective because they could not get any money out of the average crack abuser therefore
the county ends up supporting them if they lock them up, the county gets the bill if
they have to go to the psychiatics floor of a nearby hospital for detox.
This attitude does not stop the petty theft crimes of all the local crackheads they
let run the streets. We had one that was caught who stole thousands of dollars of
tools fom our shop. We recieved 3 checks for 'restitution' for the amount of .32 -
that's right - 32 cents - a grand total of 96 cents.

[Totally Committed]

2. This is really wrong, and is mainly responsible for the large prison population

and the disparity of race in the prison system. The Crack sentencing guidelines were mainly used as a legalized means to take young poor black men off the streets and put them behind bars for extended periods of their lives. It is unfair, it's racist, it's classist, but most of all --- it WRONG. It needs to stop. We need to elect candidates who will change these sentencing guidelines.

TC

[unpossibles]

3. meanwhile, I saw a sign this morning

that said "vote no on issue ____" which was against raising prison tax. I find it funny/sad that around here it's often the same people who are all for strong anti-drug laws and sentencing, but who are also anti-tax and don't want to pay for the prisons they're wanting to fill. Add to it that they are also pro-privatization and those same prisons are often privatized (and more expensive) .... and everything is just FUBAR.

[fed-up]

4. the meth cook that was busted on my prop only got 7 months, his fellow cook busted 3x

charges dropped on first two meth lab busts (including the one on my property), finally on third meth lab bust he got 4 + years, recently got out of prison, was busted again a few months ago for posession of a controlled substance and got Drug Court- WTF????? the fucker should rot in hell

the meth cooks are the ones responsible for contaminating at least 10,000 homes, apartments, mobiles, motels and/or other dump sites.

The meth cooks should have minimum 5 years for each time they are caught. The toxic crap they leave beyond can cost from $3K-$100k to clean up. Buyers and renters are relying on the honesty of the seller to disclose that there may be toxic crap in the house or on the property.

Our state has done little to notify the public that there are tens of thousands of contaminated sites in our state that they never thoroughly tested or cleaned up.

The whole justice/public health system in our country is a fucking joke.

[0007]

5. Is it the insane society that the crack smoker is seeking temporary

escape from?