Our judicial system needs a face-lift. Her splendor has been mangled by injustice as the U.S. leads the world in caging its citizens. Legislators need to reverse our imprisonment trends and stop building prisons. Repealing life-without-parole sentences for non-homicidal criminals would be a good start.
In Lincoln last month, U.S. District Judge Richard G. Kopf sentenced Jaktine Moore to life in prison for conspiring to distribute cocaine and crack cocaine* in the Lincoln area. It was his third felony drug conviction, and the court entered the statutorily mandated sentence: life with no chance of parole.
The three strikes law—coining its name from baseball—is one of a handful which force state and federal judges to hand down life sentences, regardless of the circumstances. The intention was to make punishment severe enough that no one would dare err. The result is that many Americans are now serving more time for drug offences than murder. It reflects poorly on society’s values.
Skeptic? Here’s a sad story: My cousin was murdered when I was 12 (she was 17). She was strangled. It was my first funeral, and I cried like a baby. Her killer rots in a Texas prison. But he did not get the death penalty. And he did not get a life-time bid. And the fact that a three time punk drug dealer in Lincoln, Nebraska did, is a travesty of justice. It’s like a punch to the gut.
The message is clear. Selling crack thrice is worse than murdering once. Fortunately, the majority of messages—owing to blatant hypocrisy—fall on deaf ears.
When punishments for drugs outweigh murder, it fails to make drugs the worst evil, it makes justice impossible. Crack cocaine is a wretched drug. But Americans shouldn’t get life for selling or smoking it, any other drug, and most non-violent crimes.
The Eighth Amendment states: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”
Last term the Supreme Court agreed, at least with respect to juveniles. NPR reports: “By a 6-3 vote, the court ruled it is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment to sentence a juvenile convicted of a non-homicide crime to life in prison without the possibility of parole.”
This ruling should apply to adults as well.
Some politicians will argue that our current system is too lenient. They will say too many offenders get away with just a slap on the wrist. They may suggest we need more prisons in order to keep our kids safe. They will roar, “What kind of a message would decriminalization send to our children?”
Fear is always potent come election time.
Cost alone should be deterrent enough. The average annual cost of incarceration in a federal prison is $25,895 per inmate, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The Pew Center on the States pegs the average annual cost of housing an inmate in a state prison at $29,000. States would be foolish not to take action. Imprisonment alternatives are fiscally responsible.
America is in denial. It is high time she realized she has a problem. She is an incarceration addict. Once she learns to accept the things she cannot change (legislating morality), she’ll have the courage to change the things she can—and the wisdom to know the difference.
The race to lock up the most citizens is one we shouldn’t strive to win.
*Penalties for crack cocaine are exceptionally harsh when compared with powdered cocaine. It would be like paying a $50 MIP for beer, or a $5000 MIP for whiskey. In March, the Senate unanimously approved the Fair Sentencing Act, legislation that reduces the disparity in sentences for crack and powdered cocaine possession, from 100 to 1, to 18 to 1. The House has yet to approve the bill.