From Vera Institute of Justice:
When a Russian court sentenced WNBA star Brittney Griner to nine years in prison for bringing 0.7 grams of cannabis oil into Moscow, President Joe Biden expressed outrage at the harsh punishment. Calling the sentence “unacceptable,” he issued a statement committing to “work tirelessly and pursue every possible avenue” to gain her freedom.
This commitment should extend to people who are serving unimaginably harsh sentences in the United States. The “land of the free” incarcerates more people per capita than any other nation and has some of the most draconian sentencing practices in the world. The Sentencing Project found that, as of 2020, one in seven (203,865) people in U.S. prisons was serving a life sentence—more than the country’s entire incarcerated population in 1970.
Among the nearly 2 million people currently incarcerated in the United States are those like Allen Russell, who was sentenced to life in prison under Mississippi’s unbending habitual offender laws after being convicted of possessing one and a half ounces of cannabis—a sentence recently upheld by the state’s Supreme Court. Cannabis possession should not be subject to a punishment model and many municipalities in the United States are rightly moving away from harsh sentences for this behavior. However, habitual offender laws, along with mandatory minimums, result in harsh sentences for people without regard for individual circumstances or whether the person presents an ongoing safety risk. Average sentences remain much greater than those found in other Western democracies. Continue reading >>>
|
|
|
|
