According to a report from NewsOne, the Mississippi Department of Corrections has upheld a marijuana conviction that’s going to keep a black man in prison for the remainder of his life.
Russell Allen appealed his conviction to the Mississippi Court of Appeals. The court denied Allen because he is a habitual offender. The classification discards any judicial discretion. It enforces harsher sentencing against individuals like Allen, people who have multiple convictions even if their offenses are nonviolent.
The habitual offender law is similar to the “three strikes” law. Advocates for criminal justice reform have strongly criticized the law.
In 2019, 38-year-old Allen was convicted of possessing over 30 grams of weed. He already had separate convictions for possession of a firearm and a pair of home burglaries. He’dspent over a decade for those convictions before his current prison stay.
Advocates for prison reform, including the ACLU, argue this type of conviction backlogs the prison system. Last year, the Mississippi Clarion-Ledger reported almost 90 habitual offenders are serving life without parole. Like Allen, all their convictions are for nonviolent crimes.
One of the appeal judges was a black woman who voted to release Allen. She opined that upholding Allen’s life sentence did not meet the standards of the court’s responsibility.
In her dissenting opinion, Mississippi Court of Appeals Judge Latrice Westbrooks wrote, “The purpose of the criminal justice system is to punish those who break the law, deter them from making similar mistakes, and give them the opportunity to become productive members of society. The fact that judges are not routinely given the ability to exercise discretion in sentencing all habitual offenders is completely at odds with this goal.”
Format Louisiana inmate Derek Harris understands what Allen is going through. Harris spent nearly a decade in prison after receiving a life sentence for holding less than $30 of marijuana.
Harris was originally arrested in 2008 for selling 0.69 grams of weed to a cop. At the time of his conviction, he got a 15-year prison sentence. In 2012, he’d discover under the Habitual Offender Law he was instead re-sentenced to life with no parole.
The Habitual Offender Law allows judges to update sentences to anyone with a history of criminal convictions.
Jamila Johnson is a senior supervising attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund. In 2019, Johnson argued the ineffectiveness of the Habitual Offender Law. She says the law is abusive and frequently misused. “People suffering from addiction, mental illness, and poverty can find themselves in prison for decades for something as minor as stealing $14.”
According to the ACLU, this type of enforcement isn’t doing much to make America safer. Crime rates in the state don’tcoordinate with the enforcement of the habitual law.
It is ironic that America — the world’s biggest incarcerator — appears to be incapable of seeing how its actions have no real impact on crime statistics. The country would be better off in investing in alternatives to prison. Rehabilitation and education are the greatest influence on recidivism and the prison population.
