HARD TIME

In Sentencing, 'Minimum' Can Mean a Lot

Twenty-nine-year-old Justin Dean Schwartz knew when he started
trafficking drugs between Billings and Glendive two years ago that it
could end up bad.

He had no idea how bad.

Schwartz, who had never been in trouble with the law, who had owned
his own roofing business, and who was one semester away from an
engineering degree, will be spending the next big chunk of his life in
a federal prison.

On Sept. 12, U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull sentenced the former
Glendive high school star athlete to 10 years in federal custody.

Facing the threat of even stiffer penalties, Schwartz had accepted a
plea agreement that held him responsible for enough methamphetamine to
trigger a mandatory minimum federal sentence of five years.

All it takes under federal law for a mandatory five years is 50 grams
of a substance that contains a "detectable" amount of methamphetamine.
That's less than two ounces, or as his mother, Annette Schwartz, put
it, "that's five packs of Sweet'N Low."

Compounding his problems, Schwartz had traded some marijuana for a
30-06 hunting rifle. The gun was for hunting, Schwartz explained, not
for guarding money and drugs. But the charge added another five-year
mandatory minimum sentence, and it has to be served consecutively with
the drug sentence.

"I've never been arrested before, and all of a sudden I'm doing 10
years," he said in a telephone interview while in federal custody in
Seattle.

He was there in late October while in transit to a federal prison. For
security reasons, he hasn't been told where he'll do his time.

"I had no idea about the penalties," he said. If he had known,
Schwartz said he might have made some different choices.

The judge could offer him no mercy. The law allowed no discretion and
no second chances.

It doesn't matter if you have never been in trouble before, if you
have piles of letters of support from holy men and world leaders, or
have spent your life doing charity work. It doesn't even matter if
your kid desperately needs one of your kidneys or if you're waiting
for a heart transplant.

Parole was abolished years ago in the federal system. Prisoners can
earn up to 54 days of good time a year after their first year in
custody, but that's it. People convicted of federal crimes do about 85
percent of their sentences.

For Schwartz, that's most of what's left of his youth. He'll be 36 or
37 when he gets out.

Federal judges all over Montana hand out these kinds of sentences and
much stricter ones almost every week. Life sentences -- and under
federal law, life means life -- are no longer uncommon for drug
dealers, especially if there was a gun even remotely involved.

The only chance for any relief comes in snitching, what prosecutors
call "providing substantial assistance." That means turning in
friends, relatives and other drug traffickers. Schwartz didn't take
that route, although many others in the same position have.

Montana's Chief U.S. District Judge Don Molloy said the thing that
bothers him most is that many of the people who come before him have
no inkling of how little it takes to get in big trouble.

"When I get these people in here on drugs and guns on top of it, they
have no idea what they're in for -- none," he said. "You can see it in
their eyes. They don't know."

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SERIES INDEX:

Hard Time http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n262.a04.html

No 2nd Chances With Drug Crimes http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n250.a11.html

It's The Law http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n258.a02.html

Prison Means Marking Time for Family, Too http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n263.a05.html

Paying the Price http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n265.a04.html

Partners in Crime http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n270.a03.html

Some Caught in Conspiracy Talk to Avoid Long Sentences http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n271.a02.html

Montana Project Tells Students About Drug Penalites http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n277.a02.html

Sometimes, State Charges Can Be a Wake-Up Call http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n277.a03.html

Editorial: U.S. Law Snares State Drug Dealers http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n277.a04.html