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- SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2009-THE CAROLINA TIMES i he Cost of Incarceration - The Curse of Mandatory Minimums By Patrice Gaines NNPA Contributing Writer "The Cost of Incarceration" is an eight-part occasional se ries written by Patrice Gaines, former Washington Post re porter; author and co-founder of The Brown Angel Center, a program in Charlotte. N.C. that helps formerly incarcerat ed women become fmancialh independent. Gaines received a 2009 Soros .lustice Media Fellowship from the Open So ciety Institute to research and write articles on the impact of mass incarceration on the Black community. The Na tional Newspaper Publishers .4ssociation News Ser\ ice has agreed to make this exclusi\e .series a\'ailable to its member ship of more than 200 Black- owned newspapers. (NNPA) - Hamedah Hasan was pregnant with her third child when she stood in front of a judge awaiting sentenc ing for conspiracy to distrib ute powder and crack cocaine. She had no prior criminal re cord. The hardest evidence against her was the testimony of three co-defendants looking for sweet deals from police. They said she headed a crack cocaine ring. Before sentenc ing. the Judge noted. "Had 1 the discretion. 1 would have imposed a sentence of between 10 and 15 years". But .ludge Richard Kopf was forced to follovt federal sentencing guidelines and give Hasan, then 24. life in prison. It was 1993. In an email from prison. Hasan. 41. wrote: "At the beginning of the trial I never thought Td receive the time 1 did. Up until the Judge actually sentenced me.! didn't Relieve it." "1 began to focus as much as possible on having a healthy bab\." she said. That baby. 1 la.san's third daughter, has nc\ er seen her mother outside of prison. This is the legacy created by harsh federal sen tencing guidelines and man datory sentencing laws, which have helped make the United States home to the largest pris on population in the world. Mandatory sentences don't allow Judges to use their dis cretion and take into consider ation the circumstances of a case. The result is thousands of offenders serving lengthy terms in prison for low-level drug crimes. Laws that are harsher for crack cocaine than powder cocaine have added significantly to the dispropor tionate number of Blacks im prisoned. But times are changing. For the first time in decades there are bills in Congress that offer significant reforms of manda tory sentencing. "I feel the possibility for reform is greater than ever, considering comments Obama made during his campaign and my conversations with people on Capitol Hill." said .lulie Stewart. President of Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM). Hamedah Hasan To escape an abusive re lationship. Hasan moved to Nebraska to live with a cous in who was selling drugs. Though Hasan knew about the drug dealing, she never sold or used drugs. When a man police arrested identified her cousin as leader of a drug ring. Hasan was im plicated. Based on testimony of co-defendants. Hasan was sentenced to life in prison. One co-defendant received 10 years and two others were not prosecuted in exchange for their testimony against her. In March 1999. Judge Kopf. the Judge who had reluctantly sen tenced Hasan according to the federal sentencing guidelines, resentenced her to 12 years, citing new changes in the guidelines and Hasan's "ex traordinary rehabilitation." The decision would have freed her much sooner. The government appealed and ini tially lost, but appealed again and won. Hasan was resen- itenreH to 27 venre tier oiaest aaugnter. tva- saundra. was 9 when Hasan went to prison. She said her mother's incarceration affect ed each sister differently. "It made me numb. Things that made other people happy. 1 was nonchalant about." said Kasaundra. now 25 and living in Portland. Growing up. the girls saw their mother once everv Alex and Associates P.O. Box 71133 Durham, N.C. 27722 475-3716 A young Alex McDuffie is selling subscriptions for The Carolina Times. He is helped in this en deavor by his grandfather and “number 2” James McDuffie. The elder McDuffie is using Alex’s busi ness to introduce him to the benefits of becoming an entrepreneur. You may see him out in his neighborhood and surrounding areas. Young Alex does not drive, we’re told he has a “chauffeur” named James ■ couple of years. In spite of the separation. Kasaundra. who is studying to become a pharmacy technician and has a 3-year-old daughter, said she has never felt motherless. "She'd call all the time. She's very supportive. I look at the positiv e - she's still alive." DeJarion Echols DeJarion Echols was liv ing in Waco. Texas, engaged, and raising two children. He couldn't find a Job and his col lege scholarship did not cover the full cost of his education. So he decided to sell crack co caine. Six months later Echols. 23. got caught. Officers discov ered $5.700.44 grams of crack cocaine and an unloaded rifle under his bed. They held him accountable for approximately 500 grams of crack, estimat ing the money came from an additional 450 grams. Echols admitted the drugs were his and that he had sold crack in the past, but denied that the unloaded gun was used in re lation to his drug activity. Nevertheless, in 2006 Echols was sentenced to a mandatory minimum of 20 years. When sentencing him Judge Walter S. Smith said. "This is one of those situations where I'd like to see a Congressman sitting before me." "I couldn't be lieve it." said D'Juana Echols. Echols's mother, who still lives in Waco. "I'm not condoning what he did; it was wrong. But you have people who murder and molest children and get less time than what my son was sentenced to." Meanwhile Echols' fiancee. Ctystal Garcia, waits for the day when they will be togeth er again. "One thing that keeps me going is focusing on our future and how we will sur vive financially." said Garcia, a nurse in an intensive care unit of a hospital. "DJ will be 40 when he comes back. What is he going to do? Our baby Faith will have graduated from high school and not known her father free. She is at the age where she cries. "I want my daddy. I want to talk to daddy." It's heartbreaking. Everyone makes bad choices. Just because you make one bad choice doesn't mean you should be locked up for 20 ye'ars.? Jason Stavers. the San Francisco lawyer working on Echols' commutation, said he was drawn to the case by the ordinariness of his client's life. "He could be my brother, your son. my fgther or a neph ew. He went to school, got good grades, played on a foot ball team, was a responsible parent. He made one egregious mistake. "DeJarion was not a big enough criminal to get out of Jail. He had nothing to lever age. If he had been more deep ly involved and had been will ing. he could have fM M m ' -i DeJarion Echols, serving 20 years for a crack conviction; is pictured here with his fiance Crystal Garcia and his daughters, Faith, 3 and Charity, 10 squealed and gotten good deal." Righting Wrongs In 2007 supporters of fed eral sentencing reform got encouraging news. The U.S. Sentencing Commission, which maintains federal sen tencing guidelines created by Congress, lowered the sen tencing ranges for crack co caine offenses by two levels. The change affects 70 percent of crack cocaine cases sen tenced in federal courts, reduc ing sentences by an average of 15 months. The Commission also made the law retroactive, which meant release for some people in prison at the time. Those fighting for changes in mandatory minimums hope the 2007 change proves to Congress it can make laws ret roactive without political fall out. Said Stewart of FAMM. "There are a number of bills in the works, including legis lation that would fix the crack disparity, as well as a broader bill that would give judges in creased discretion to avoid the mandatory minimum". Among the most important pieces of drug-related legisla tion is a House bill that will abolish the disparity in sen tencing between crack and powder cocaine. For the first time in decades, legislation could make drug laws fairer. FAMM is fighting for any change to be retroactive, so it could affect people like Hasan and Echols. But so far Con gress has not taken a position on the issue. Without manda tory minimums. both Hasan and Echols probably would have paid for their mistakes by now and would be ordinary citizens taking care of their families. Both have continued their education in prison and have exemplary records while in carcerated. But unless sentenc ing laws change or Hasan and Echols receives presidential clemencv. thev will sit in prison for many more years. "As a nation we should not incarcerate people beyond what is necessary...." said Steward, president of FAMM. ■ "We are a nation that believes in second chances and forgive ness. but those qualities seem to be overlooked when we talk about the incarcerated." For Lega/ Notices Call 682-2913 Today Couch & Associates, F.C. Welcomes Attorney C.Destine A. Couch Former Durham County Assistant District Attorney • Criminal • Traffic Offenses • DWI • Worker's Compensation • Personal Injury WWW, couchandassociates. com 919.688.8786 Serving the community and accenting new clients. C. Destine A. Couch Attorney at Law University Tower 3100 Tower Blvd, Suite 901 Durham, NC 27707
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