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Stories of those Affected |
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The following account is taken from her testimony before the Inter American Commission on Human Rights, March 3, 2006
Kemba Smith
I was a college student at the age of 19, away from the protective watch of my mother and father and in an attempt to "fit in", I met a man while a sophomore in college who I became romantically involved with and unbeknownst to me at the time, according to the government, he was head of a violent 4 million dollar cocaine ring. He eventually became verbally and physically abusive in which I had to seek medical attention. I continued to be in a relationship with him for over 3.5 years in which during this time he increasingly drew me into his drug activities The prosecutor stated during my court hearings that I never handled, used or sold any of the drugs involved in the conspiracy. Yet, I was sentenced as a first-time nonviolent drug offender to 24.5 years, one for every year of my life.
It is evident that the people who are disproportionately impacted by these federal drug sentencing laws are people of color and I am not ashamed to say again that I represent those who are currently incarcerated, people just like me who are capable of being productive taxpaying citizens.
When the U.S. Congress created the mandatory minimum sentences and collateral consequences for drug offenses, they may not have been acting with the intent to inflict speical punishment upon people of color, but that has unquestionably been the effect.
The following account is taken from his testimony before the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, February 28, 2008
Michael Short
Twenty years is the kind of sentence that drug kingpins should get - big time dealers. But I was no drug kingpin. I was sentenced like one because the drug I was convicted for was crack cocaine. The law treats one gram of crack cocaine the same as 100 grams of powder cocaine. If I had been sentenced for the same amount of powder cocaine, I would have left prison roughly seven years ago after serving nine years, which is still a very long time in prison.
I have heard some of the comments some people in positions of power have made about crack cocaine prisoners - that we are violent gange members and that is why our sentences have to be so much longer. I am not that person and most of the people I leave behind in prison aren't either. I grew up in a warm, close, supportive family. I had all I needed and, though I made a terrible mistake, there was no violence in my crime. I was not a gang member. I was sentenced for such a long time because of a stereotype.
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