RETHINKING THE GUIDELINES
U. S. concern over mandatory terms
Sharanda Jones — prisoner 33177- 077 — struggled to describe the moment in 1999 when a federal judge sentenced her to life in prison after her conviction on a single cocaine- related offence.
She was a first- time nonviolent offender.
“I was numb,” Jones said at the Carswell women’s prison here. “I was thinking about my baby. I thought it can’t be real life in prison.”
Jones, who will turn 48 next week, is one of tens of thousands of inmates who received harsh mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences during the crackcocaine epidemic, and whose cases are drawing new attention.
Because of her role as a middle woman between a cocaine buyer and supplier, she was accused of being part of a “drug conspiracy” and should have known the powder would be converted to crack — triggering a greater penalty.
Her sentence was made even more severe with a punishment tool introduced at the height of the drug war that allowed judges in some cases to “enhance” sentences — or make them longer. Prosecutors argued: Her licence for a concealed weapon amounted to carrying a gun “in furtherance of a drug conspiracy.”
When she was convicted on one count of seven, prosecutors said her testimony in her defence had been false and therefore an “obstruction of justice.”
Although she was neither the supplier nor the buyer, prosecutors described her as a leader in a drug ring.
This produced so many enhancements, the judge had only one punishment option. With no possibility of parole in the federal system, Jones was, in effect, sentenced to die in prison.
She almost certainly would not receive such a sentence today. Federal sentencing guidelines in similar drug cases have changed, in particular to end disparities in how the courts treat crack cocaine versus powder cocaine. And, after a 2005 Supreme Court decision, judges have greater discretion when they mete out punishment.
But a lingering legacy of the crack epidemic are inmates such as Jones. About 100,000 federal inmates — or nearly half — are serving time for drug offences, among them thousands of nonviolent offenders sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, says the American Civil Liberties Union. Most are poor, four in five are African-American or Hispanic.
Last year, then- Attorney General Eric Holder — who had called mandatory minimum sentences “draconian” — started an initiative to grant clemency to some non- violent drug offenders.
They had to have served at least 10 years of their sentence, have no significant criminal history, and no connection to gangs, cartels or organized crime. They must have demonstrated good conduct in prison. And they also must be inmates who probably would have received a “substantially lower sentence” if convicted today.
Jones applied. It has been a halting process, however. Only 89 prisoners of the more than 35,000 who have filed applications have been freed, including 46 inmates who were granted clemency on Monday by U. S. President Barack Obama.
Prisoner 33177- 077 was not among them.
The woman had grown up poor, raised by her grandmother after her mother was left quadriplegic by a car crash.
But Jones, who started working when she was 14, had an entrepreneurial streak, opening her own hair salon and a burger joint before starting a Southern- style restaurant in Dallas with a woman from Terrell who was a Dallas police officer.
A friend told Jones she could earn thousands more if she “got into the game.”
“It was fast money,” she says now. “Biggest mistake I ever made.”
Her problems began in November 1997, when the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Department conducted a drug sweep near Dallas, netting more than 100 people, all black.
Jones was charged with six counts of possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine and aiding and abetting, and one count of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine.
The jury acquitted Jones of all six charges of possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, and aiding and abetting, but found her guilty of one count of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine.
Although no drugs were ever found, U. S. District Judge Jorge Solis determined Jones was responsible for distributing 30 kilograms of cocaine. He arrived at that number based on the testimony of the co- conspirators — a couple who received sentences of seven and eight years, and a Houston dealer, who got 19- 1/ 2 years. All have since been released. The judge determined Jones knew or should have known that the powder was going to be “rocked up” ( converted to crack).
When all the enhancements were factored in, the judge had no choice but to sentence Jones to life.
Ronald Weich, who was a special counsel to the U. S. Sentencing Commission during the late 1980s, said mandatory minimum sentences and their enhancements were all about math, not about people.
“These laws forced judges to look at their calculators instead of into the eyes of the defendants they were sentencing,” said Weich, now dean of the University of Baltimore School of Law.
“They weren’t allowed to ask, ‘ How did they get to this point in their lives?’ and ‘ Who were they going to be in five or 20 years?’ ”
The sentencing scheme that sent Jones to prison has been widely denounced by lawmakers from both political parties. And sentences have been greatly reduced for drug offences. But the differing approaches over time have led to striking disparities.
One illustration: The U. S. Justice Department announced last month that one of Colombia’s most notorious drug traffickers and a senior paramilitary leader will serve about 15 years in prison for leading an international drug- trafficking conspiracy that imported more than 100,000 kilograms of cocaine into the United States.
The jurors who found Jones guilty were never told about the life sentence, which came months after the trial. Several of them, when contacted by the Washington Post, were dismayed.
“Life in prison? My God, that is too harsh,” said James Siwinski, a retired worker for a glass company.
“That is too severe. There’s people killing people and getting less time than that. She wasn’t an angel. But enough is enough already.”