Johnson’s case should be call to end drug war
A lot happened during the two decades that Alice Marie Johnson was languishing in prison doing a life sentence for arranging drug buys over the phone.
She became a great-grandmother. And an ordained minister. And a GED volunteer.
But here’s what didn’t happen: Memphis did not become a safer city while she was off the streets.
Last year, 21 years after Johnson was sent away for drug trafficking and money laundering in a Houston-to-Memphis operation, 26 people were arrested for trafficking drugs in North Memphis in an operation called, “Operation Cocaine Cowboy.”
Earlier this year, 25 gang members of Major Stackz Entertainment were indicted for armed drug trafficking throughout the area.
Largely because of drugs and the gang-related violence that comes with it, Memphis remains the fourth-most violent city in the U.S. with more than 100,000 people. Poverty and economic struggles continue to make this city ripe for drug trafficking operations to flourish.
That means that life sentences for non-violent drug offenders such as Johnson, as well as punishments that hobble ex-drug offenders’ efforts to start over once they are released, have done more to destabilize families and communities than to destroy the drug trade.
That means many will struggle to find a job and a place to live — which means some may resort to either using or selling drugs again.
That means the cure is almost worse than the plague.
Lucky for Johnson, reality show star and socialite Kim Kardashian West recognized this. After watching Johnson, 63, describe her plight in a video, she got with Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, who got her a meeting with Trump — who had recently been praised by her husband, rapper Kanye West — and asked him to grant clemency to Johnson.
Trump commuted Johnson’s sentence. She’s back in Memphis now — to catch up on all the stuff that happened while she was away, and to pick up on the life that she thought she would never get to finish outside of prison.
That’s all good — but Johnson’s release should also translate into steps to end the drug war that saddled her — and continues to saddle others — with punishments that don’t fit the crime.
Here’s a place to start. In Tennessee, lawmakers could revive the push to reform the state’s Drug-Free School Zone law.
The reform bill, which died in the state House Finance Committee, would have reduced the zones from 1,000 feet to 500 feet, and cut all drug-free zones off at state or federal four-lane highways.
This law, which is rightfully aimed at doling harsh sentences for anyone who sells drugs to children or near places frequented by children, has had the unintended effect of ensnaring people who aren’t doing that.
These tend to be people who live near a school, or library or day care, but may have used drugs in their home or at night.
On top of that, 40 percent of Memphis is in a drug-free zone, so that makes Memphis more vulnerable to such unfairness. Under this law someone who, say, was caught with a marijuana joint in his pocket while walking through one of those zones could face 15 years in prison.
That’s more time than some murderers receive.
Truth is, the lopsided punishments that comprise the drug war reflect more frustration with the resiliency of the drug trade than the pursuit of sound policy.
But even in the absence of sensible federal policy, and even as law enforcement takes down major drug operations, more can be done to stop the war against drugs from being a war on communities and families.
Hopefully, Johnson will use her freedom to enlist in that fight.