This is a special blog post. To understand it, you will need to read the Potpourri section of the RSOL February issue of the Digest. In short, this is a newsletter written by an inmate in a state penitentiary who has organized a group of inmates who are working, as RSOL is doing, for meaningful reform. It was distributed to family and friends and other inmates. Be sure and scroll below the end of the letter on page 3 to an open letter written to a congressman about the issue.
A special post indeed! Jay lays out important points.
ReplyDeleteThe third paragraph of the letter contains an error. It says, Please consider introducing or supporting legislation to retroactively remove the mandatory minimum sentence for possession of child pornography. It should say ...for receipt of child pornography because there is no mandatory minimum for possession.
The mandatory 5-year minimum for receipt has driven up the sentence length for possession so that most convicted of possession are serving at least four years now...and for something that was a misdemeanor not that long ago. That is one of the dangerous and expensive effects of mandatory minimums: increasing sentence length of crimes that do not require a mandatory minimum.