One Down, Thousands to Go

On May 30, 2018, Alice Johnson was released from federal prison after serving over twenty years for drug trafficking charges. It took a clemency order from President Donald Trump, after months-long advocacy by pseudo-celebrity Kim Kardashian West, to end Ms Johnson's sentence of life in prison--a sentence imposed for a serious, but non-fatal crime. Now, this grandmother is back home with her family where she belongs, working to rebuild her life after only recently seeing nothing but concrete walls and steel razor wire in the rest of her future.

Drug trafficking and other drug related crimes are serious. People who contribute to the drug epidemic that has a strangle-hold on our nation ought to be held responsible for the crimes they commit. Those that are committed to wreaking havoc on their communities by perpetuating addictions that lead to other crimes need to be held accountable. But, as has clearly been shown by nearly a half-century of failed "war on drugs" policies, what America has been doing to address the problem has not worked. Instead, hundreds of thousands of families are torn apart when drug dealers and traffickers are imprisoned with long sentences (sometimes even for life), worsening deeply rooted systemic inequalities that lead many young people, and sometimes older people, to choose the only thing they know--the drug game the streets have taught them.

Most people who deal drugs do so because they choose to. However, we often fail to recognize that many who make that choice have very few options from which to choose. Drug trafficking and sales, while not exclusive to urban areas, is largely centralized in areas of abject poverty, high unemployment and school dropout rates, and high parental incarceration rates. When the parents of children, especially in these urban areas, are incarcerated, it vastly increases the likelihood that the children will follow in their footsteps. Yet, the criminal justice system has failed to address the destruction their own war on drugs policies have inflicted on generations of poor Americans.

Some recent changes have begun to address the overly harsh sentences many drug related crimes have earned over the years, especially within the federal criminal justice system. Even some changes to Michigan laws have reduced mandatory sentences for some drug crimes, but it is not enough. While I'm pleased that Ms. Johnson was granted a Presidential clemency, nearly every other prisoner in a similar situation as her, some having served far more time, lack a celebrity advocate who has the President's ear. One Michigan prisoner I know, Rafael DeJesus, was sentenced to serve consecutive sentences that totaled a minimum of 60 years for non-violent drug related charges. Although law changes have made him eligible for parole after 30 years, he's served over 26 so far, I'm left questioning why he was ever sentenced to anywhere near that time. Having read documents from his case, it is clear to me that keeping DeJesus in prison for 30 years is a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars. Nevertheless, despite the tireless advocacy of his only remaining living immediate family member (his sister), DeJesus continues to be held by a system bent on solving America's drug problem with a failed tough-on-crime approach.

We cannot simply stop holding drug offenders accountable for their crimes, but lengthy sentences do not increase rehabilitation; they only lead to broken families, and generational poverty, unemployment, and illiteracy, not to mention a criminal waste of taxpayer dollars. It is time for a generation of fresh, insightful, and courageous political leaders to rise up and reform our criminal justice system that has, itself, become criminal and unjust.

(If you'd like to find out more about DeJesus' situation, go to www.FreeRafaelDeJesus.com)