MARCHERS SUPPORT NONVIOLENT INMATES

The sign 4-year-old Aven Mitchell of Birmingham carried to the state
Capitol building Saturday was almost as big as he was. The message
Mitchell's family and other Family Members of Inmates members carried
was much bigger -- let nonviolent drug offenders come home.

The group of about 40 marched up Dexter Avenue and to the Capitol
steps to "Shine the Spotlight of Shame on Alabama." According to the
group, Alabama state prisons are operating at 185 percent capacity.

The blame, group members said, lies with the state's drug
laws.

Michael A. Blain, director of public policy for the Drug Policy
Alliance, flew from New York to lend his support to the inmates' families.

"We are here protesting the draconian drug laws here in the state of
Alabama," Blain said. "In this time of fiscal crisis, you can't keep
jailing people. Alabama has no more money. Stop locking people up."

Mitchell's family, there Saturday in support of his incarcerated
uncle, Carlos Starks, was not the only family protesting the strict
drug laws in Alabama. Annie Davis of Dadeville turned out to plead for
her son, Kelvin Lamont Shaw.

Shaw, 28, is in Staton Correctional Facility after being convicted of
marijuana trafficking. Sentenced under the habitual offender law, Shaw
received a life term.

"This month we didn't even get a visitation," Davis said. "He
complains about it being overcrowded. He complains about the food. He
barely can eat in the cafeteria the food is so bad."

Davis said she does what she can to help her son, a father of four,
but that the justice system in Alabama needs to be changed. Radio talk
show host Roberta Franklin, who led the rally for Family Members of
Inmates, said change will start not with the lawmakers, but with the
families.

"I'm disappointed (in the rally's turnout)," Franklin said. "I got
more letters yesterday (from inmates) than the number of people here.
Unless the family members stand up and say we're sick of what's going
on, nothing will change."

Franklin, who got a five-year suspended sentence on illegal possession
of prescription drug charges in May 2003, complained about the lack of
support inmates receive from society, sometimes including their families.

"Fighting for inmates in the state of Alabama is not a popular cause,"
Franklin said. "No one wants to do it."

Saturday's protesters had support from several other organizations,
however, including the Alabama Marijuana Party and Project Hope to
Abolish the Death Penalty.

Loretta Nall, head of the Alabama Marijuana Party, told the group the
majority of drug offenders in prison are not top drug dealers.

"They are people like you and me," Nall said. "Poor white people and
minorities, the people who can't afford to defend themselves."