Celebrities tend to be the last hope for nonviolent offenders. That shouldn’t be the case.
Today, there are more than 2 million individuals behind bars. Due to the increasing prison population from 1980 until today, spending on federal prisons has spiked by nearly 600 percent, from less than $1 billion to roughly $7 billion annually in inflation-adjusted dollars. We are putting too many Americans in prison for nonviolent crimes, wasting taxpayer dollars, and tearing apart families in the process. Keeping nonviolent and low-risk criminals in prison has human and monetary costs that we simply cannot afford to ignore.
To make matters worse, many times a presidential commutation or a court-reduced sentence, advocated for by a celebrity, is the only way a nonviolent, low-risk offender can receive any sort of justice when a hugely long sentence does not fit the crime.
Weldon Angelos, for example, received a ridiculously long sentence for marijuana charges and was only able to leave prison after serving 13 years due to a bipartisan campaign led by celebrities such as Alicia Keys and Snoop Dogg aggressively fighting for his release. His 55-year sentence for selling small amounts of marijuana eclipsed the mandatory minimum for hijacking, kidnapping, and rape. The judge in his case, unable to go below the mandatory minimum, even advocated for the president to commute Angelos’ sentence, arguing that the stacked charges for his case amounted to a sentence that was too severe for the crime.
The Senate version of the First Step Act addresses the stacking problem by ensuring that first-time offenders such as Angelos do not receive ridiculously long sentences for nonviolent crimes because of stacked charges.
Angelos’ case is not isolated. Thousands are behind bars for similar nonviolent crimes, such as Matthew Charles, who received a 35-year sentence for a nonviolent drug offense. After spending half of his life in prison, Charles was granted his freedom after he appealed his sentence when the Fair Sentencing Act became law. The law, passed in 2010, reduced the crack-to-powdered-cocaine disparity from 100-to-1 to 18-to-1. Following his release, Charles had a steady job, reconnected with his family, and was able to rebuild his life.
But he was sent back to prison after an attorney appealed his release. He is currently in prison serving the rest of his 35-year sentence while Kim Kardashian West is advocating for his release.
Today, nearly 3,000 people in the United States, like Charles, are serving excessive sentences because the Fair Sentencing Act was not retroactive. The First Step Act would allow nonviolent offenders the opportunity to properly petition the court and appeal for their release consistent with the new crack cocaine law. The changes would not automatically let everyone out, but they would give prisoners with unnecessarily long sentences the tools to petition their sentences without celebrity support.
The bill also expands the federal safety valve, which allows a judge to use discretion in limited cases to sentence below the mandatory minimum if it is too harsh for the offense. Currently, an individual is eligible for the federal safety valve if they only have one criminal offense point. The new Senate version of the First Step Act would expand the federal safety valve to three points and ensure that judges have the option to sentence low-level and first-time offenders with time that better matches the crime.
Simply warehousing people for decades for nonviolent crimes with little way out, except for celebrity support, is ruining lives while also draining valuable taxpayer dollars. We need sentencing reform and the First Step Act because everyone worthy of release doesn’t have the Kardashians and Snoop Doggs of the world going to bat for us.
The baseline bill that the House passed under a 360-59 favorable vote focuses on incentivizing recidivism reduction programs for low-risk offenders by providing time-release credits to inmates who participate in rehabilitative programs. The Senate version includes the House recidivism reduction reforms. The First Step Act has the support of President Trump, making the Senate floor one of the final hurdles for the bill.
Nonviolent drug offenders shouldn’t need celebrities to come to their defense to receive a fair sentence in the first place. It is Congress’ job to right a wrong and ensure that people do not spend their entire lives behind bars due to excessive sentencing for nonviolent crimes.
Demri Scott is a fellow at Americans for Tax Reform and Digital Liberty covering criminal justice reform and technology policy.
