Since I started working on this story about crack sentencing guidelines, I’ve been receiving bunches of email, via Corrlinks, from people serving various sentences related to crack-cocaine charges. I thought I’d share a few:

Hello:

I would love to have my story told. I was given a reduction at sentencing in 2006 for my drug addiction, dad started me on drugs at 4 years old. I was denied on the first crack amendment (2008) and am being told i cant get on board for this.

I’m currently at williamsburg FCI. I grew up in key west florida. They say i can’t get relief because i am a career offender, even though the majority of my crimes were either for drug possession or drug-induced petty crimes. You should note that some career offenders have gotten reductions even though they say i can’t. I fully cooperated with the government every time yet they never helped me receive a reduction. I have been a drug addict all my life documented by letters from my mother, sisters and brother to the court hence the lower sentence i got originally (140 months for 26 grams of crack cocaine).

At a very young age my father introduced me to grass and alcohol and by the age of 9 i was smoking crack, snorting cocaine and from that point i never had a chance/choice it was too late. I’m now told even though my crime started as a drug offense for crack cocaine i cant get a reduction because of crimes i committed over 15 years ago, sounds discriminatory to me. I’m just a drug addict who got caught with a small amont of crack and am being punished like if i was a big time drug dealer, something is wrong with this system. Even worse the positive stuff i’ve done while in here (and its alot) counts for nothing while others can an are using it for further reductions. I sincerely hope you can use me to rectify/acknowledge this wrong. And yes i can provide documentation. Let me know what you need.

Respectfully, D.

D. is scheduled for release in May of 2020.

Brend an Kiley has worked as a child actor in New Orleans, as a member of the junior press corps at the 1988 Republican National Convention, and, for one happy April, as a bootlegger’s assistant in Nicaragua....

18 replies on “Prison Letter of the Day”

  2. I have to say, sentencing particulars aside, his claim of innocence makes me giggle. The appeals court decision is online. He leased a garage in which the feds later found five hundred kilos. They pulled him over after they saw him drive a car into the garage, then ten minutes later drive out again. They found fifty kilos in the trunk.
    http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appe…

  5. Hay, waitaminute. Between the time I read the posted letter from Glenn Early and the time I slapped together my magnificent comment, the letter in the post changed to one from somebody completely different. Apologies that the switcheroo makes my comment not only a waste of time as usual but nonsensical.

  7. I swear, when I first read this post its featured letter was by a sixtysomething Chicagoan named Glenn Early, and it included a link Mr. Early provided to more details of his story, which my browser history still has at http://www.november.org/thewall/cases/ea…

    Unless this is some form of alzheimer’s hitting me in the form of phantom Slog posts. My comments may begin getting deranged at a level not Will nor SROTU has yet reached.

  8. Don’t worry, Gus. It’s impossible to get more deranged than Will and still retain the ability to type.

    That is pretty weird, though.

  9. I do think Slog should adhere to a firm policy of using strikethru text or other clear indications of changes/updates. It seems to me they used to do this regularly, and Dan stands out in my mind as still doing it pretty consistently. In most cases switcheroos don’t amount to much in the great scheme of things, but to the extent that they make posters (Stranger staff) look more careful or more knowledgeable than they are, and commenters wrong or petty or moonbatty, the changes should be explicitly acknowledged.

  10. @9,

    It also makes Brendan look dishonest/disingenuous when he just removes evidence of a letter from a career drug dealer. 500 kilos? Jesus Christ!

  11. Gus:

    I still had it in my RSS feed. Here you go:

    Hello Brendan:

    I have sat here in federal prison for many years and during the last few, I have witnessed the crack cocaine offenders receive humble retroactive two-level sentence reductions, not only once, but now twice, and I am happy for those individuals.

    However, here I remain for over six more years of my thirty-year prison sentence while not receiving any relief. If I were granted the same considerations for my possession of the less addictive powder cocaine, I too would be on my way home now.

    First of all, there was absolutely no weapons or violence associated with my criminal case. What there was, was the government’s extravagant story-telling in that I contolled more than a thousand kilograms of ninety-two percent pure cocaine, with a street value of two-hundred to three-hundred million dollars. In spite of the utter foolishness and after a lengthy trial, a jury of my supposed peers found me guilty of both conspiracy to distribute cocaine, and possession with the intent to distribute cocaine. Furthermore, I received a two-level sentencing enhancement for perjury, simply because I testified on my own behalf. The enhancement alone accounts for 67 months of my thirty-year sentence.

    I have written about my criminal case and current situation numerous times. You will find a brief version posted at: http://www.november.org/thewall/cases/early-g/e….

    After having exhausted all possible avenues for relief in the courts, I then petitioned Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama to grant me executive clemency. And, of course, with no success. However, I will submit my next and last petition for clemncy to President Obama in spring. This time with much more support and reason. Having a release date of May 2018, would cause most people to simply give up hope, but for me it only increases the drive and determination of this 62 year old Chicagoan.

    You’re not crazy.

  14. @MileYrHigh
    Are you suggesting that not only the internet but SLOG itself is subject to unremarked upon revision? Next thing you’ll be telling me is two plus two equals four.

  16. Yeah, OK, gus, you’re in the clear for now. But we’re keeping an eye on you. Any more foolishness and, well, we can’t be held accountable for what might happen.

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