NewsLanc's sister organization, Common Sense for Drug Policy (www.csdp.org), received the following from a prison inmate. The letter provides a human element to the statistics we read every day about the USA incarcerating the highest percentage of its population of any nation in the world with more than two million in prison.
"I’m serving a 15 year mandatory sentence for possessing 598 Percocets. The Commonwealth weighed the pills as a whole, saying I was trafficking over 200+ grams of Oxycodone, the majority of the weight being acetaminophen (aspirin). [Unlike Pennsylvania], federal law weighs only the drug in a pill.
"This is my first offense. I was offered 7 years to plead guilty, but the pills wer my co-defendants so I went to trial and lost.
"Rapist and child molesters get offered lesser plea deals and / or less time being found guilty. Violent offenders – even murderers get less time.
"I feel my sentence is to harsh and unfair. It costs the tax payers close to $50,000 a year to house me. I’m no threat to society and the 4 1/2 years I have already served should have paid my debt to society.
"Could you please give me any feedback you may have on this issue and the drug laws?"
Would we rather how this fellow in jail another ten years or use the $500,000 for another purpose, perhaps even lower taxes?
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