Lost if this triggers a mandatory sentence to add insult to injury while im incarcerated for 24 years he comes back to the us and goes before see the same judge the sentence me to 24 years and he got 3 years probation because he cooperated and snatched out everybody. The person who comes in early and cooperates usually ends up with a lower sentence than the person in the conspiracy who walks up 2 days before the trial and tender simply that sentence will be different even though they may be situated the same its just plain different and those are the yangs and the of the sentencing process that the court has not a whole lot of control over and the u. S. Attorneys and the prosecuting attorneys have control over but it does result in a different sentence when youre facing Something Like 20 or 30 years. You have people that are are doing things they never thought they would do which is turn in their friends testify against friends sometimes they will even make up. False information to testify falsely against people just in order to get themselves out from under the terrible legal situation they are in the pressure to provide information is huge and coercive and unamerican. But thats the way mandatory minimums are set up. My mother calls me and she said well i need to tell you something. And im thinking the worst just while i may is featured in our magazine shes been in prison for a number of years and why that was such a catalyst was suddenly we had something tangible to hand to people the Community Found out and my brother got involved and of course my father and senator and senator pryor and everyone started actually looking into the case and saying well what could have possibly happened here this just doesnt seem right my story in case started gaining momentum and we got i think up to 15 politicians wrote letters supporting my clemency when i read it i was i was sympathetic. Because i thought. That her husband was the primary driver of the offense she was clearly had a subordinate role needs. And she was caught up in the way of these conspiracy laws that are extremely broad ranging and you dont have to do very much to be to get yourself stuck in a case like i went to my case Managers Office and walked in the door and she said she was in a frenzy and she said you know where are you going to release to and i was like what do you mean and she said were you going to live when you get out of prison and i thought wow i guess what my parents for a while and she said because ive got to set you up on probation and i said why. I just said youre going home. And. I couldnt process it i was just right. My reaction was. I think i was sitting down so i stood up and i said theyre going to start and i sat down and i said what do you mean and she said youve gotten executive clemency president clinton has ordered you out and you have to be out today by 5 oclock the president had granted her petition and she was told that afternoon and evening they let her out that day it was really great because we always got bad news in there nobody ever got. It was really nice to have all the women walk me across the compound and there was that moment in the compound of victory but it was really hard to because you have to leave you have to leave so many people behind. We can confidently say today that we are finally beginning to win the war against now is the time to show drug users that we mean to reach our goal of a drug Free Generation in the United States you will be put away and put away for good 3 strikes and you are. A true stated by the Nixon Administration to create a drug free society. Thats what its all about thats why we spend the billions of dollars and incarcerate millions of people is to create a drug free society. And weve been at this now for good no hard for 40 years trillions of dollars into it no wind in sight really and when a reasonable person says how much closer are we to creating a drug free society. You begin to realize that perhaps weve been given a mission here that is impossible to achieve we saw Violent Crimes go through the roof as these. Criminal gangster organizations fought one another so were seeing that type of phenomenon today in our major metropolitan areas like los angeles the crips against the bloods and of course there are endless filings that were seeing in mexico and in places like south america as these very rich powerful cartels fight one another it lines up perfectly with alcohol prohibition when you look at oklahoma prevision the richest man in the country was ok he controlled if you tried to get in his market he would kill you there were also kinds of sub factions they trying to to manufacture it in their bathtubs and still it was unseen and terry you didnt know what it was cut with sometimes it in a freeze people would drink this group of people who drink it to get cirrhosis kids would die in the crossfire it sounds all too familiar to this exactly was happening on the streets today in the United States when it comes to getting violence in the drug one of the problems that we have a drug prohibition is so deep of a business you make so much money and such little time and the difference between arresting someone for dealing drugs and arresting someone for committing rapes. When you arrest a rainbow for someone committing burglaries you know what the rapes stop. The burglaries stop when you arrest someone for dealing drugs dealing drugs doesnt stop on that corner you just create a job opportunity for someone else to come in and unfortunately when a job is filled viciously some fighting sioux name. People. The emphasis over criminal Justice System should be on violent offenses this is where most people are concerned about. They won murderers and branded they want murders and rapes solved and they want these people taken out of the community and locked away in prison so that our communities can be safe i dont know what to come out just as well to be like without the war on drugs. My only experience of it has been during the war on drugs. And i started family in 1991 war on drugs really heated up in the eightys kept rolling through the ninetys you know it sort of started tapering off and then to thousands but its still alive and well its like a pounding funder of anti drug as styria in 1906 we must do something anything and that meant grasping at straws and not looking ahead at what the costs are going to be or what might be effective while i was on the hill i increasingly became convinced that the war on drugs was a mistake it was. Counterproductive and i wanted to put my energy into ending it and so in january 1989 i started the criminal Justice Policy foundation. And that is been the opportunity for me for the last 25 years to. Mobilize different kinds of strategies to end drug prohibition a lot of it has been through other organizations i helped start families against mandatory minimums in my office im still very active with students for sensible drug policy. And with Law Enforcement against prohibition. And so a lot of my work is advocacy. Strategizing you know what are the ways to change drug policy to reform from the Justice System. There are. Countless numbers of people who are in prison for inconceivably long sentences for being minor minor offenders in the drug trade these are just a handful of you know files from families against mandatory minimums. Where are these people you know james felt life sentence. To now clark 35 years Timothy Tyler life sentence sure on the jones life sentence. This is not an aberration this is the life blood this is the typical case this is the typical Clarence Aaron whose numerous pieces i mean these are all long cases these are you know you see colombian drug lords here you see mexico chop guzman you see in the mexican drug lords here. We have few experts haitian that when we lifted people out of poverty when we became richer then weve become. And i think vanities what a lot of people ah struggling with now the expected that once they reached a certain level of income then they would be happy. And yet we create new size we create new things we want and i think sometimes we run out of explanations for why we feel unhappy. The problem that the Financial System costs from austria throughout the rest of the world was so big that not just one central bank could make money cheap enough could create enough artificial money by itself and so the fed did clearly did Work Together with the European Central bank with the bank of england with the peoples bank of china later that was kind of separate story with the bank of japan and so forth to create enough money to put into the Financial System to keep it safe for itself and ultimately what that did is a transferred on that money into the. Banks into Financial Assets into burgeoning stock markets like like a ton of sort of crack into an attic up it up and i never took it away and that meant someone else was going to pay on the other side and the people that paid on the other side as everyone else in. This number you would know the moves through but in your circles one astute. And you can move forward into the new much for the privilege of a little with 3 minutes to do it when there. Was a. Little white and good bit of the new year already in the eastern seaboard never you know made it into the trees. To be. That bad. What politicians do. They put themselves on the line to get accepted or rejected. So when you want to be president. Or some want to. Have to go right to be close with what will look for 3 of them or cant be good. Im interested always in the waters of our. First city. I was so glad to to start to work my way out of the prison. So go in the Clinton House was a Halfway House you were half way old but it was still open. So i got the Clinton House always already has so much bears indoor roof at a movie back row. I called. Well balsa he was in a Halfway House at the time and i think someone i dont know what company happy im doing rufus and his mother came to me and next we would like him appear shoes that he needed to do his group and and he just blossom he just blossomed from there i was so happy to be at work and be to be have the ability to work again that i never missed a day i was always there i was always there hour early before anybody else get there. So in essence i was hungry i was hungry to work i was hungry to be free. And have the ability to change my life around so all those stains. Made me a good employee in a mentally dismayed as mine of insane he was going to go if you know go into business for yourself in a salad all starting i just really felt that i had what it took to be awesome but no way to be successful. So i quit my job and i was fully fledged into business then i had to leave i froze year business i made about 30 some 1000. 00 or more for a shit. I remember a vest im back into the business im buying tools a mile ladders some growing the business or take my 2nd year i read about he somehow. 3rd year i did about one assault 1000 almost all it was surely progress and so now i want to have a 1000000. 00 next to normal to say i want to now. In the early 2999. 00 our old 2000 my family went over the 1000000. 00 more. That while one home i never thought that i would call a 1000000. 00 business. A person has to have a dream. You know they have to want to do better for themselves you can bring a person out of. And they can have nothing and they can make something of themselves if thats what they want. To live disserving way for so long in his forest. Way. Dad needs to be put out here. Because a lot of people dont know how to break to change from the street scene thats saying get off only you a single hold you want to die to be all that bull of war. For me is to be that beacon of hope oh no matter where you come from no matter what youve done you can come because the same bull i sold drugs on. Directly across the street for my office is used to set a bar called the night light. Sold drugs out that door for a number of years inside and out so they have mobility almost it became before and then to show people that yes i was that once drove up and down the street and sold drugs and did all that stuff there im now a changed person and im that somebody that they can expire to also. Executive clemency was a bittersweet victory to be honest right there because it didnt take me very long. After i got out and the excitement exhilaration wore off that i realized that that. I may be free. So many of my friends and other people arent and. As long as theyre not then im not really so i started a can do foundation which is clemency for all nonviolent drug offenders to try to continue to help some of the women i left behind i did time with Danielle BarbaraMary Richardson theyve all done well over 20 years these are all guys who are serving life these are for pot hes for l. S. D. I have just got back from washington d. C. I was there for a on a fundraiser about the whole clemency project thats happening and in fact i took. All these guys to the front in front of the white house and anyway theres several of them that i stood out in front of the white house advocating for their clemency when i started practicing law almost 40 years ago there about a half a 1000000 people in prison. And today there are 2300000. 00 people in prison billions of dollars have been poured into the prison expansion not only of the federal prison capacity but billions have been sent to sate local governments to expand their present capacity and during the 1990 s. We were building on average a prison a week and as soon as these prisons were built its important to emphasize that they were immediately filled up with 1st nurses and even today many of our prison facilities are operating beyond their design capacity if you compare the u. S. With other industrialized nations canada or western europe we lock up her citizens at 5. 00 to 10. 00 times the rate of those other nations its not that we have 5 or 10 times the rate of crime of those other nations but we have consciously chosen to have a much more unity to broach. Then other comparable nations that have been in this was only see a massacre as. Kids we go i. Got a job. And. A lot of. Parents. That are there. And the Child Tax Credit or care and childrens lives and going to. Be conditional and. Loving and. Just because. Im ours one inch bread jellicoe 1263706 my 1st encounter of the of the prison systems are pretty young. Life salad drugs you know starling the thing with me was i got out february i think it was 2012 within 3 months i got out they mccourt fives boehm arrest to sion paid. Child support paid everything i was thats. I started my own business i got a vehicle had tags had a license and everything in october that year i decided smokes weed and i thought the worst Case Scenario if i go to probation offices that i have to go to a program where id be urine test regularly or go to a mean well the reality of fact is a dirty urine is a violation and probation officer i have was new and she was a stickler for the law and she violated me their own spot i wept like a little child i couldnt believe i had made all this work im like i have all this to show you look at all this i have ive done it shes a youve done a lot but you still using drugs and its against the law. To get sentenced to 4 years for dirty youre in the houses. Its a lot watching your children grow up in michoud in wave and say by daddy as youre walking out of a visit its just it doesnt get easier you dont stand and as you get older you think you become more custom of this but it never under any circumstances gets easier. For. The man. I want to say thank you for spending as much time as you do at the halles watching everybody all moms at work i know you miss out on playtime i know you miss out on a lot of thanks i just want to start off by saying that thank you im proud of you wrestling. Im glad youre sticking with it i know youre going so just like i said try to stick with it and you know why youre the man of house did the best you can take out the trash drive things your manners i love you so were very proud of you and of those wonderful. Friends from 7 to 13 really growing up. And im sorry im not there to guide you. As much as id like. To turn out pretty good and im very very proud. I really am. Now oh i dont know surrender my baby. I love ya vision very recently you just got. So very proud and i know you worked hard to tell me how you were doing when. Youre strong so friends. And i. Want to know i love you here i miss you very much oh heres what i miss you and there is a culture that i went through it is. Moments or any time you hate me you miss me theres a gaping same things mom when she used the word i love you and i miss you all and i hope to see you soon and that he loves you. And it. Is in the morning only. Because of the fact that so many of us have lived for 30 years in this box of mandatory sounds federal sentencing guidelines and you know the drug war we have to start breaking out of that box and thinking about a world away that out the outside of those confines if youre interested in reducing the injustice and do see mass incarceration you have to go to the root of the problem which is too many laws on the books and what is the primary problem there as far as prioritizing which was ought to go 1st top of my list is the drug laws because i think were in another situation where its very similar to the days of alcohol prohibition where the government has just declared millions and millions of people to be criminals and thats what theyve done with the stroke laws theyre danger of looking at one outrageous. After another can. Blind you to the broader perspective that they are so many excuses and these are actually the typical this is the system it is broadly unjust and that it is so wasteful its so counterproductive. Its so inefficient wanted us to be why does it continue. Why are we going to be able to spot. It more efficiently on the policy its been going on since man each 6 month want to know so many lol that was meant to be his major. That is a very deeply disturbing in time in the ability to waste so much treasure. And inflict so much money. And cause so much injustice in a society where our credos are about liberty and justice for all. So other temporary orders that are modern before go to file trial actually do allow. I do address them as james and his male pronouns but i cannot do that in front of 3rd parties who know him as a girl so basically i cant go to school i keep them away from any friends he might have at school that known as a girl and at my home hes known as james and i use male pronouns what im prohibited from doing right now is trying to convince him that hes actually a boy. If you will not obey the voice of the lord your god will be careful to do all these commandments and the statutes which i come on to this day then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. And then the white people the stolen property and deport must pretend to black people if they get rid of whites only problems will go away. The need within the. Presence of the fickle little. White farmers in south africa. People being tortured to death expression the elderly people in the. Mania somebody of my funky enough somebody. Not being the nice white horse will find themselves affected by a crash and we often point to one of my teens in dreams oh its all sweats and lots of. What are you going to have for dinner through the ceiling if they need to be im asking for a night me bad schools. Civil war in south africa easy never to. Profit from mars or any chong not be in the tone of your hand to get to. Eat. Probably dont see up front. This morning. To go. 7 6 to the club. That. Is your. Headline news from iran says it will boost your raney of enrichment as the nuclear crisis. It marks a further rollback of the 25th. Deadline for sanctions relief expired europe moves quickly to run against furthering its Enrichment Program but irans foreign minister blames the european seacrest for failing to uphold the nuclear deal. Also among the stories that shape the week russia pays tribute to the 14 sailors who were killed in a fire on a Nuclear Submarine in the barents sea on monday. Fighter jets zoomed through the skies of washington and tanks rolled through the streets on