LITTLE JUSTICE IN SYSTEM

I am sick of reading articles that lead people to think that mandatory
minimum sentencing guidelines give judges the power to increase prison
sentences for drug offenders. My 26-year-old son was sentenced last May to
life in prison for conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine. He was
sentenced in federal court in Peoria by Judge Billy Joe McDade.

At my son's sentencing, Judge McDade made his displeasure and disgust with
the sentencing guidelines quite clear. The judge had no option but to give
my son a life sentence because of these guidelines and the pre-sentence
investigation (PSI) report prepared by the federal probation officer.

These reports often are based on statements made by offenders who are
encouraged to inform on other offenders. They usually are rewarded by
having their own sentences lessened. It is astounding to me that my son
could be sentenced to life based on statements made by other drug offenders
with no proof that their statements were valid. Drug offenders most likely
would say whatever it might take to save their own skins, yet their word is
taken as gospel.

My son was sentenced to life in prison. Think about that. Murderers,
rapists and child molesters are sentenced to less, but Judge McDade had
absolutely no leeway in sentencing him because his power to judge each case
individually has been stripped away by the guidelines.

Why do we even have federal judges unless it is because of their education
and years of experience? Why are we relegating the power to determine
prison sentences to the vastly less educated and experienced people who
prepare the PSI reports?

My son is now serving his life sentence alongside violent offenders at the
maximum-security federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. He is not a violent
offender. In every situation he would try to avoid violent confrontations.
Since he has been placed at Terre Haute, at least two guards have been
stabbed, and serious physical altercations between inmates have occurred.
My son's criminal charges involved no use of weapons or physical violence,
yet he is in a maximum security facility 3 1/2 hours away from his children
and family, when there is a prison in our city that houses nonviolent
offenders.

Our prisons are overflowing with drug offenders, many of whom are
nonviolent. Housing one prisoner for one year costs $22,000 to $30,000.
Wouldn't our tax dollars be better spent on some rehabilitation and
re-entry preparations?

The U.S. Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of the
sentencing guidelines that require judges to lengthen sentences based on
evidence never given to juries. I pray that its ruling will return control
in sentencing to federal judges and that such a ruling will be made
retroactive so my son will not rot away in the federal prison system. He is
not beyond being salvaged.

Put yourself, at least briefly, in my shoes. Think about what it would be
like to raise your 8-year-old grandson because your only child has been
given an unfair and unreasonable life sentence. Think about how you might
try to explain to the child that the American justice system is the best in
the world when he knows that his father has been sentenced to life and he
hears daily on the evening news about murderers, rapists and child
molesters being sentenced to just 10 to 15 years.

After seeing how our justice system has dealt with my son, I find it hard
to see the justice in it, so I can only imagine what is going through this
child's mind.

Marsha Williams.

Pekin