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Supreme Court: What jettisoning of precedent may mean for next term csmonitor.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from csmonitor.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Advocates and lawmakers argue that the program has been a resounding success, and that it would be unjust to reincarcerate thousands of individuals who abided by the terms of their home confinement.
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“If you re one of these people, you re trying to figure out, Do I go back to college? Do I start a new job? Do I start a family? Do I sign a lease? I mean, what can I do, not knowing where I m going to be in six months?’ That s cruel to keep somebody in that doubt and uncertainty for this long and to say, ‘You know, don t worry about it, it s not going to happen tomorrow,’” said Kevin Ring, president of the advocacy group Families Against Mandatory Minimums.
Tarahrick Terry’s case is, broadly, a story about regret and redemption. But it’s also a story about how the specific wording in a law can quickly breed confusion in the courts.
The sentencing rule that treated crack cocaine 100 times worse than powder had been in effect for 20 years by the time Mr. Terry was sentenced in 2008.
The disparity has come to be viewed, by critics spanning the political spectrum, as one of the great injustices of the war on drugs. It’s been one of the key drivers of mass incarceration, those critics say, in particular subjecting thousands of low-level offenders – the vast majority young people of color – to long prison terms.