Everyone knows the U.S. incarcerates more people than any other country in the world. But we also sentence people to prison longer. And while there are people who deserve long prison sentences or even life sentences, overall, many incarcerated people simply do not deserve the sentences we’ve given them.
Take the story of Alice Marie Johnson, who was convicted in 1996 as a first-time, nonviolent drug offender and sentenced to life in prison. When President Trump commuted her sentence last year, she had already served 21 long years. Unfortunately, Johnson’s case is no isolated incident. Our prisons are flooded with people with similar stories and unfair sentences.
Here are a few.
Quentin Burt grew up in Detroit, in a family that lived paycheck to paycheck. Later in life, wanting to provide for his daughters and avoid the financial struggles his parents faced, Burt joined his brother on a drug deal, desperate for money.
The deal turned out to be a reverse undercover sting set up by the federal government.
On the day of the deal, no drugs were present — there were however, two guns in the backseat of the car where he was a passenger, zipped up in a bag. Burt was sentenced to 41 years in prison. To date he has served over 28 years, and has a nearly spotless record.
While in prison, Burt has earned his associates degree in paralegal studies, and sends money from his prison job to his daughters. Burt filed a petition for commutation twice with the Office of the Pardon Attorney — yet President Obama rejected it both times. Burt has recently re-filed his petition under President Trump, and his family remains hopeful.
Here’s yet another example of a man ruined by our overzealous criminal justice system.
As a young teenager, Chris Young began selling drugs just to survive, leading him to get arrested twice during traffic stops as an 18- and 19-year-old. Then in 2010, he was arrested at a gas station while talking with a man who authorities believed was the leader of a drug conspiracy. To make matters worse, drugs, $10,000, and a gun were all found in the man’s car.
After rejecting various plea deals and instead choosing to go to trial, in 2013, Young was somehow sentenced to life in prison.
At sentencing, Judge Sharp admitted that the life sentence was “out of whack” based on what his co-conspirators were given — and not long after the trial, Judge Sharp retired from the bench, citing his deep ethical discomfort with sentencing men such as Young — young men “barely on the totem pole” of drug conspiracies, to die in prison.
Here’s another story. Rick Turner was born in Utah to a loving mother and an abusive father. As Turner’s life spiraled downward through a series of misfortunes, a drug dealer named Bassam Ramadan sought him out knowing he was vulnerable. Not long afterward, Turner began dealing.
Turner even moved in with Ramadan, and during one deal at the house, he asked Turner to retrieve a gun (Turner didn’t own the gun, nor did he ever use it) and package it up with drugs to sell to his customer named “Mountain Man.” As it turned out, Mountain Man was an undercover detective.
At his sentencing, Turner was sentenced to 40 years in prison as a first-time, nonviolent offender. Under the First Step Act, his sentence would have been much lower — unfortunately, he was sentenced before the reforms became law. The judge at his trial even called his sentence “wrong” and “excessive,” but there was nothing he could do under the mandatory minimum laws.
Tragically, Turner was found dead by prison guards. We can honor Turner’s life by never giving up on the fight for a fair criminal justice system. And while we have made some progress, Turner’s story, and the stories of so many like him, remind us that we have much more work left to do.
Mark Vargas (@MarkAVargas) is a tech entrepreneur, political adviser, criminal justice reform advocate, and contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog.
