FIGHT FOR FAIR SENTENCING

Group AIDS in Change for Drug Offenders

As federal government officials grappled with a plan earlier this
month to reduce sentences for thousands of low-level crack cocaine
offenders, they were being lobbied by Michigan residents in favor of the idea.

Lots of Michigan residents.

Michigan has one of the largest and most-active chapters of Families
Against Mandatory Minimums, a national nonprofit organization that
works to repeal what many consider unfair drug and sentencing laws.

With 14,000 members nationwide, including 4,000 Michigan residents,
and an annual budget of more than $1 million, the group packs a punch.

After months of lobbying by FAMM and other groups, the U.S.
Sentencing Commission, a body created by Congress to set federal
sentencing guidelines, voted Dec. 12 to retroactively reduce the
sentences of many people convicted of crack cocaine offenses.

The commission noted that crack cocaine offenses carry far longer
sentences than powder cocaine ones, a disparity many have criticized.
Now almost 20,000 federal prisoners nationwide are eligible to have
their sentences reduced.

Michigan FAMM members, who e-mailed, mailed and called legislators in
support of the change, include prisoners, former prisoners and their
families, attorneys, criminal justice professors and a former
Michigan governor.

"I think the trend across the country is to focus on smart justice,
with an increased reliance on treatment and drug courts," said Laura
Sager of the Michigan chapter of FAMM.

A decade ago, state legislators overturned Michigan's 650 lifer law
following fierce lobbying by FAMM members. That law, passed in 1979,
required those who trafficked in more than 650 grams of cocaine or
heroin to be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

The law was aimed at so-called kingpin drug dealers, but instead many
addicts and low-level drug couriers got life sentences.

Along the way, FAMM converted William Milliken, the former Michigan
governor and moderate Republican who signed the 650 lifer legislation
into law, an act he later said was the biggest mistake of his administration.

Today, Milliken is an active member of Michigan's FAMM chapter,
lobbying, writing and speaking about the need to implement smart
justice by allowing judges more discretion in how people are sentenced.

"The law I signed turned out to be harsh and vindictive and unfairly
treated a number of people who were addicts who didn't deserve that
kind of punishment," Milliken said in a recent interview.

FAMM member Barbara Pearson was 42 and a heroin addict in New York,
supporting her habit in the early 1990s by mailing drugs to a dealer
in Michigan. She was arrested by Michigan authorities and pleaded
guilty to 10 counts of delivery of heroin. Pearson, a first-time
offender, was sentenced to 50 to 200 years in prison. Her
codefendant, who turned her in, got a 2- to 20-year sentence.

FAMM became interested in her case and successfully sought a
commutation of her sentence in 2003. Pearson, who spent eight years
in prison, now works full time supervising a mentoring program for
women in the criminal justice system.

"If it hadn't been for FAMM, I might not be sitting here talking to
you today," said Pearson, now 54.