Friday, June 3, 2011

FAMM Update


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At our meetings I've mentioned that one of the priorities for our federal efforts is retroactivity of the Fair Sentencing Act. As you can see below in this update from our Federal Legislative Affairs Director, Wednesday's Sentencing Commission hearing on that issue went very well! Thank you for stepping up and helping the fight for fair sentences for our friends and family in federal prison. Keep an eye out for some updates on summer membership meetings (Miami and Panama City, I promise you're next!), and keep up the great work!


-- Greg Newburn, Florida Project Director

Dear All --


On June 1, the U.S. Sentencing Commission held its hearing on whether and how to make the new crack guideline retroactive. It was a jam-packed and exciting day. Here is my quick recap:


Dozens of FAMM members attended the hearing, traveling from as far away as Indiana, Michigan, New Hampshire and North Carolina. FAMM's president, Julie Stewart, told the commissioners, that the mere presence of so many family members was more powerful than anything the witnesses could possibly say.


But happily, witness after witness called for retroactivity, starting with the U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder. While he also called for restrictions on who might benefit, we hope that the Commission will listen to the many, many others who testified that retroactivity should be available for everyone, not just some. Judging from the tough questions Commissioners asked the Department of Justice witness who testified with the Attorney General, we are cautiously optimistic that they will listen more to the Department's support for retroactivity and less to the Department's call for restrictions on who should be eligible for retroactivity. 


You can read Julie's written statement here and to FAMM member Natasha Darrington's excellent testimony here. Natasha did an amazing job delivering her testimony, bringing some of  the commissioners and audience to tears. And when Julie asked the FAMM  members with loved ones in prison to stand and be recognized, it was  clear the commissioners were visibly moved. FAMM plays a powerful role  in reminding policy makers who their policies impact. (Expect an email  from us soon with video and pictures from the hearing.)


Media  coverage of the hearing was limited but excellent. The New York Times  interviewed Julie in a piece that appears here. National Public Radio (NPR) interviewed Julie and Natasha for a  segment that aired this morning on Morning Edition found here. Natasha appeared on another NPR show, Tell Me More, found here. FAMM was also  quoted in an Associated Press print story and radio clip in advance of  the hearing.


Finally, I want you to know that even those of you who couldn't attend the hearing had an impact. The Commission mentioned that it had received over 34,000 letters in support of retroactivity. THANK YOU for taking the time to make your voices heard by sending in letters and signing our petition!


So, what's next? The Commission will hold a vote on retroactivity sometime this summer. We will be back in touch to let you know what we're doing to make sure the vote comes out right.


It was an exciting day and your support helped make it so. Thank you so much!


Sincerely,

Jennifer
Jennifer Seltzer Stitt
Federal Legislative Affairs Director
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"When an American says that he loves his country, he means not only that he loves the New England hills, the prairies glistening in the sun, the wide and rising plains, the great mountains, and the sea. He means that he loves an inner air, an inner light in which freedom lives and in which a man can draw the breath of self-respect."
~Adlia Stevenson U.S. Vice President (1893–1897) and Congressman (1879–1881)

On a Personal Note

Thanks for the opportunity to express my thoughts regarding the issue of citizens’ rights, particularly addressing certain sex offenders’ crimes that do not fit the devastating, inequitable and endless punishment given.


As you know, many young men and women lives across the nation are being destroyed by incarceration, life-time registry and restrictive laws that do more harm than good. For those individuals, there is no second chance.

Below is a personal letter to President Obama:
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“Dear President Obama,

I truly agree with your sentiments that individuals, such as ex-felons, should be able to receive a second chance at life. Since we all know that one can veer off that path of life and travel along rough, rocky terrain, sometimes running off and ending up in some ditch. We all have made our fill of mistakes and sometimes those held a costly consequence that changed life forever. So we lived through it, trying harder to make things right with family, friends and those around us, but what about those who aren’t able to make things right even if they tried…because they’re labeled as too dirty, a leper, a person who is rejected from society and home.

But what if they’re a seventeen year old and had sex with a fifteen year old, consensual at that? Or they’re a teen that had gotten so enraged after a breakup that he sent out naked pictures of his girlfriend on his cell phone or email? Or an individual urinates where someone just happens to see them?

All are wrong and a travesty but do they deserve the life of no second chance with a registry that ends all. They are labeled, no jobs, no where to live…they have been deemed a menace to society, a plague. These certain circumstances, and many other situations similar to these, I believe still deserve a second change.

Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

After my son’s early release and two years of prison, I thought I had handled that fact graciously knowing after serving his time he would be able to get that fresh start, that second chance. He was an exemplary inmate, GED, college courses and vocational classes. Little did I know that a second chance on the outside was the farthest from the truth? He now struggles and lives in a trailer park sharing a trailer with another and surrounded by others in the same rocking boat, one to float endlessly in shark infested waters. I see him little because of probation requirements (he couldn’t live with us because we were 800 feet near a school). My family is afraid of what would happen to them if he lived with them…vigilantism. My son has no other place to stay since others condemn him of his crime that is screamed from the highest rooftop. Sex offender, sex offender!

Not all sex offenders are pedophiles or predators but some are simply young kids that make one stupid and rash decision that eventually changes everything, and they have no idea what they’ve done until their life is never their own. Exactly, where is that second chance for those sex-offenders who are lumped together with pedophiles and predators? Now, it makes me sick to think of my son’s future and many like him that are on the registry and many with no second chance…ever. I am asking you as a mother and as another concerned citizen of the United States that these laws are looked at again and taken into serious consideration in what they are doing to the Constitution of the United States, not for sex offenders in general but the future rights of every citizen, before anymore are put into effect. They unjustly strip an offender of their rights and place them in a guillotine that can be easily set off by anyone and at anytime. Where is the second chance for ex-sex offenders in the present, pending and future laws?”
* * * *
What truly saddens me is the weakness and deterioration of what the sex offense issue is doing to our once, great nation. Across Europe, others are seeing the injustice and disregard of rights, but we ignore this problem and it makes me wonder where humanity is heading….

We have become a hysterical society in which our latest witch-hunt is a sex offender--no matter his/her crime.

Below is a email sent from a foreign advocate to a father of a sex offender:
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“The tragic story of your son's death is just so sad that it's difficult to explain how. It was very hard to read your letters. It seems almost unbelievable that this can take place in a democracy! From our point of view, there is no justice in this. Not in any way: not for you, your son, the former girl friend – or even the state.

It is an abusive legal system. It seems barbaric. And we are so very sorry that this takes place. That's why it's so important for us to try to neutralize the debate with this…, hopefully making some changes. ….. to show the every day life of the sex offenders, trying to show how they keep on being punished, even after served prison time…..But we will for sure tell the story of the injustice that your son has been exposed to.”
* * * *
I appreciate everyone's commitment and backing to protect everyone's civil rights, plainly as noted in the Constitution of the United States and is presupposed, giving ALL men are “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.”