
>From verdant@student.umass.edu Mon May 3 19:04:08 1993
Date: 03 May 1993 17:45:05 -0400
From: Sol Lightman <verdant@student.umass.edu>
To: pauls@css.itd.umich.edu
Subject: prison:UMACRC_requested_file


Justice Mocked; The farce of mandatory minimum sentences.
By Colman McCarthy

A year ago Patricia Martorana, a 20-year-old woman I came to know and
admire when she had been a gifted student leader at Vero Beach (Fla.)
High School, was attending Valencia Community College in Orlando. She
waited tables to earn tuition money. Her career plans included earning a
degree to work for the Florida forestry department as a wildlife
conservationist.

Today Martorana is caged in a federal prison in Marianna, Fla. She is
three months into a two-year sentence after plea bargaining to a charge
of conspiracy to distribute LSD.

I doubt if any member of Congress had Patricia Martorana or citizens
like her in mind when the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act was passed.
Amendments that were a pitched response to get tough on drug offenders
set mandatory minimum sentences. Judges were left with no sentencing
options. The congressional intent was to cast a judicial net so wide and
tight that, at last, drug lords and kingpins would be snared and given
the stiff punishment they deserved. And members of Congress could
champion themselves as winning the war on drugs.

They're winning all right - small. Patricia Martorana, whose case is not
unusual, according to legislative and judicial groups that monitor the
effects of mandatory minimums, was a nonviolent first offender. She did
not deal, buy, sell or use drugs. Her "conspiracy" to distribute LSD, as
detailed in the plea agreement with a federal prosecutor, was marginal
and fleeting at best.

Last May, Martorana was phoned at home by an undercover agent posing as
a buyer. He had been given her number by a high school friend of
Martorana. The agent, along with a government informant who was
cooperating to have time cut from his sentence from an earlier drug
crime, was directed by Martorana to someone she knew at work who was a
dealer. The agent paid him $1,340 for 1,000 dosage units of LSD.

Martorana was given $100 as a commission by her co-worker. In a stakeout
of the young woman's apartment, surveillance agents learned it was there
that the dealer transferred the LSD to Martorana's high school friend,
who then sold it to the undercover agent outside.

For this role in a relatively minor drug deal set up by legal
entrapment, and in a state teeming with violent and huge drug rings, a
young college student is now a federal prisoner. When Martorana was
sentenced in early November, a family member recalls, the judge
expressed a sentiment of frustration routinely heard from the bench: the
mandatory minimum sentencing law gave him no choice but imprisoning the
student for two years. He was forbidden to consider that this was a
nonviolent first offense or that Martorana's participation was small or
that her mother recently died of cancer and her father is disabled.
Probation, community service or counseling was out.

On Feb. 17, Rep. Don Edwards (D-Calif.) introduced legislation calling
for an end to mandatory minimums. He was responding to the increasing
opposition to the restriction from the American Bar Association, judges
in all 12 judicial circuits and the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

Occasionally a jurist can no longer take it. In late 1990, a
Reagan-appointed federal judge in San Diego resigned because of
mandatory minimums: "They have destroyed the discretion of judges," J.
Lawrence Irving said. "They are grossly unfair to the litigants. For the
most part the sentences are excessive, particularly for first-time
offenders."

It works the other way, too, as in "guideline sentences." This is a
process by which drug kingpins can bargain for lower sentences if they
cooperate with prosecutors by fingering others in the ring. A mandatory
sentence can be avoided by naming names. "The moral of this story," says
Julie Stewart, director of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a
Washington advocacy group, "is that if you're going to get caught on a
drug charge, be a kingpin. You can talk and get off lightly. It also
means that those who have little or no information to bargain with get
the hardest hit. They're the least guilty."

FAMM's files bulge with cases of citizens serving drug sentences of 5,
10 and 20 years without parole chances for first and often minor
offenses.

Inside her Florida prison, Patricia Martorana sees the injustice up
close: "There are women here serving 10 to 15 years on charges of drug
conspiracy. They are doing more time than some murderers. I would say
that over 50 percent of the women here are first offenders."

All are doing hard time, compliments of a simplistic law passed - and
kept on the books - by an unthinking Congress. In addition to
brutalizing the lives of people like Patricia Martorana, justice itself
is mocked. Forced to obey mandatory minimums, judges can't judge. They
can only process, stamping defendants as they pass by like slabs of meat
on a judicial conveyor belt. If the 1986 law has had a measurable effect
on drug deals, it's news to the judges.


>From the LA Times page A3, Sunday, Jan 31 (I think -- give or take a day):

"Swamped by Smuggling"
"Surge in Drug Seizures Forces Border Officials to Weigh Eased Guidelines
on Prosecutions"
By H.G. Reza, Times Staff Writer

The two smuggling incidents during a recent weekend are hardly isolated cases.
They symbolize a growing problem at San Ysidro and the other four ports of
entry along the California-Mexico border, where marijuana smuggling has
reached epidemic proportions, customs spokeswoman Bobbie Cassidy said.

Marijuana seizures at the border have increased so dramatically that the
upswing has forced San Diego-based federal law enforcement officials to
rethink their policy on prosecuting smugglers.

Because of a lack of prosecutors, judges, and funding, the U.S. attorney's
office can no longer prosecute all drug cases -- including marijuana, heroin,
cocaine, and other narcotics -- that originate at the border.

As a result, for the third time in recent years, the U.S. attorney's office
is considering changing its guidelines on marijuana smuggling, which
amounts to a loose formula to aid prosecutors in deciding which cases to
handle as felonies.

Under the proposed changes, it would be possible for a first-time smuggler
to face only a misdemeanor charge if caught carrying up to 220 pounds of
marijuana into California. If the amount is more than 220 pounds, the
smuggler would probably be charged with a felony. Other factors, such as
a criminal record, would be taken into consideration and the prosecutor
would not be bound by the guidelines.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
excerpts from an Associated Press article as it appeared in today's
Tallahassee Democrat (Knight-Ridder)

   ABA Study Shows Leap in Drug Imprisonment

  More people are being locked up for drug offenses -- particularly minority
youth -- at a time when drug use is decreasing and other violent crimes are
on the rise, the American Bar Association said Sunday.
  "We have a criminal-justice system in this country that is on a fast track to
collapse" because of the heavy emphasis on drug enforcement, said Neal Sonnett,
charman of the ABA's criminal justice section.
  "The criminal-justice system is devoting more of its resources and attention
to drug offenses and less to violent crime," Sonnett said. "Unless we do
something now ... we are going top have a criminal-justice system that is
crushed under the caseload of criminal cases without any appreciable decrease
in crime."

[The article continues with other quotes and statistics from the report. In
particular:
  - drug arrests rose by 24% from '85 to '91. drug users in that time dropped
        from 12% of the population to 6%.
  - adults in prison for drugs rose by 327% from '86-'91.
       " " " for violent crime rose by 41%.
       " " " for all crimes rose by 50%.
  - adults in prison for violent crimes still double those in prison for drugs,
    (346,000 vs. 165,000 in '91) but drug prisoner percentages are growing,
        and this growth is resulting in early release of violent criminals.
  - minority youth arrests for drugs rose 78% from '86-'91.
    nonminority " " " " fell 34%.]


 REUTER MJM KG SJ UPce 12/10 1558 Corrections investigating drug overdose

   CHESTER, Ill. (UPI) -- Illinois Corrections officials want to know how a
Menard Correctional Center inmate who died of an apparent drug overdose last
month managed to smuggle a syringe into the maximum- security prison.
   DOC investigators are examining the Nov. 29 death of Michael LeCrone, 34, a
convicted killer who was serving an 80-year sentence for a Champaign County
murder and other crimes.
   Passing inmates found LeCrone dead on the floor of his one-man cell in the
Southern Illinois prison. Randolph County Coroner Neil Birchler said the dead
inmate had a makeshift tourniquet tied around his arm and there were needle
tracks on his hands and feet indicating he was a longtime intravenous drug
abuser.
   Also found in LeCrone's cell were a syringe and several rubber bags
containing a white powder believed to be cocaine or heroin. Birchler believes
LeCrone died of a drug overdose but won't make an official ruling until lab
tests confirm the identity of the drug.
   Corrections officials acknowledge pills, cocaine, marijuana and other drugs
often are smuggled into the state prison system, sometimes by guards and other
times by visitors or prison workers.
   But intravenous drugs are rare and deaths from overdoses are almost unheard
of, said Michael Mahoney of the prison watchdog group the John Howard
Association.
   State law makes it illegal for any Illinoisan, in prison or out, to possess a
hyupodermic syringe without a prescription unless they are a health-care
provider.
   DOC policy also bans needles in prisoners' cells and says all inmates must go
to prison infirmaries to receive injections.
   The state's most publicized prison drug overdose was in 1987, when a Pontiac
Correctional Center inmate choked to death on a packet of cocaine as he tried to
hide the drugs from guards who were moving him to another cell.
   Prison gangs blamed guards for the inmate's death and killed Pontiac
Superintendent Robert Taylor in retaliation for the incident. The gang leader
who ordered the assassination and two inmates who carried it out were sentenced
to death for the crime.


UNICOR's Use Of Prison Labor For Private Buisiness
Has Wide Ranging Rights and Social Implications

By Len Martin

Reprinted from Farmers and Consumers Report

   The federal government is cooperating with private
financiers in a scandal that is contributing to the demise
of independently operated buisinesses and is costing
taxpayers big bucks.
   The scandal is a buisiness enterprise called UNICOR.
You probably haven't heard of it because the mass news
media, which is controlled by the /big money boys/, isn't
telling about it.
   I had heard about UNICOR from prisoners who had called
me on other matters. But it wasn't until Rudy (Butch)
Stanko, who is incarcerated in the federal prison system,
sent me the manuscript of _Slavery Survives in America_ for
publication that the full story became known to me.
   For daring to /blow the lid/ on UNICOR, Stanko has been
grossly mistreated in prison. Out of the first 600 days in
prison, Stanko had spent 313 in isolation (the hole).
Since then, he has been in /the hole/ for extended periods
of time. There is no doubt this is due to his exposing
UNICOR.
   The mistreatment is designed to serve as a warning to
other prisoners to keep their mouths shut about UNICOR --
or they will get the same treatment as Stanko.
   What is it about UNICOR that such drastic measures are
taken to keep the UNICOR operation from being exposed?
   Stanko exposes several facets of the operation of
UNICOR that give cause for concern:
   /First/, UNICOR is a shady operation.
   Stanko describes it as a private corporation using
prisoners to work in their factories and paying them an
average of 60 cents an hour. The private owners of UNICOR
aren't required to match social security, or pay
unemployment, workmen's compensation, health insurance, or
retirement benefits.
   These UNICOR factories, located at the various federal
prisons throughout the United States, are producing 192
different products.
   Using prison labor at slave wages, UNICOR presents a
real problem to regular buisinessmen.
   It is estimated that labor costs in the United States
factories average of over $9 an hour. It is impossible
for them to compete with UNICOR which pays an average of
60 cents an hour to prisoners.
   In UNICOR's instructions for managers of their various
factories, it states that UNICOR is a government
corporation.
   This isn't possible, because on December 6, 1945 Congress
passed a law (31 USCA 866) which reads: /No corporation
shall be created or organized, or acquired ... by the
federal government ... No wholly owned government
corporation ... shall continue after June 30, 1948 ... the
proper corporate authority of every such (government)
corporation shall take the necessary steps to institute
dissolution proceedings before that date/.
   UNICOR is sometimes referred to as a quasi-government
corporation. This is a sure give-away that it a privately-
owned operation.
   /Second/. UNICOR is expanding rapidly.
   UNICOR is growing rapidly. This is even stated in the
manager's instructions. That it is expected to become
gigantic is indicated in the last paragraph of an article
appearing in a daily newspaper. In effect it states:
"Prison industries could grow to rival the military/
industrial complex."
   A /New York Times/ article said: "The federal
government needs to more than /double its prison capacity/
`We are getting to the edge of a very serious crisis,' said
Stanley E. Morns, director of the United States Marshals
Service."
   One prisoner told me that UNICOR plans to /double its
output/ and that the U.S. Justice Department assured UNICOR
there would be sufficient manpower (prisoners) to fill the
need.
   Another prisoner told me: "You won't believe the number
of prisoners who are foreigner. They are being kidnapped
and held in United States prisons supposedly on drug
charges.
   "The real reason is the need for slaves to work for
UNICOR. The prisoner said about one third of the prisoners
where he is incarcerated are kidnapped foreigners."
   The expansion of prison facilities and the $34,000 plus
a year cost to keep each prisoner incarcerated adds up to
big money -- to be extorted from the taxpayers. Is this
prison expansion really necessary? Apparently not,
according to information being compiled by private
investigators.
   /Third/, the news of a drug crackdown is faulty.
   There is no doubt drug abuse is a major problem in
America. Reliable sources have pointed out that the drug
problem could be drastically curbed if the government
officials really wanted to do so.
   But apparently there are enough government officials
who do not want to stop the flow of drugs into America.
   There is no doubt that there are officials high in our
government who are working to weaken America and force it
into a one-world government, and drug abuse greatly weken
the moral and physical strength of a country's citizens.
   Too, the tremendous profits from dealing in drugs is
too great for people in power to resist.
   Drug distribution could not continue at its present high
rate if people in law enforcement and in the courts were
doing their duty.
   Some law enforcement and court officials, along with
other government officials, are actually involved in drug
dealing -- and have been for years.
    /Fourth/, high federal government officials are involved
in the drug buisiness.
   Emerging information points a finger at high federal
officials as being responsible for the continuing drug
importing into the United States.
   Former police officer Jack McLamb, in one issue of his
newsletter /Aid and Abet/, relates a meeting between
Colonel Bo Gritz and General Khun Sa, overlord of Asia's
/Golden Triangle/.
   Khun Sa offered to stop a shipment of 900 tons of illegal
narcotics and expose dirty United States government
officials. It's all recorded on video tape. Copies have
been widely circulated in the United States.
   In a letter to then Vice President George Bush, dated
February 1, 1988 Col. Bo Gritz wrote: /If you have any love
or loyalty in your heart for this nation; if you have not
completely sold out, then do something positive to determine
the truth of these serious allegations. You were director
of the CIA in 1975, during the time Khun Sa says Armitage
and CIA officials were trafficking in heroin/.
   Gritz goes on: /Richard Armitage is named along with
Theodore Shackley (your former Deputy Director CIA for
Covert Operations) and others among whom you, Armitage, and
General Richard Secord are prominently mentioned/.
   Was Bo Gritz rewarded or even congratulated for providing
the documentation? He was rewarded by being arrested on an
apparently phoney charge.
   It is apparent that those in charge of our government
have no intention of stopping the illegal drug trade despite
their phoney campaign rhetoric.
   It is also apparent that the planned doubling of federal
prison capacity is not for the purpose of incarcerating
illegal drug offenders (at least not the key figures), but
it is merely a reason given for providing housing for slave
prison laborers for UNICOR's factories.
   For daring to expose UNICOR, Stanko was also denied
parole -- since there was no other apparent reason. A
number of Congressmen have asked Congress to investigate the
Parole Commission reguarding the Stanko case. But nothing
has resulted from requests.
   Are Americans going to allow such injustice to go
unchallenged? We must remember. When the rights of one
of us are violated, it endangers the rights of all.
--
The University of Massachusetts at Amherst | _________,^-.
Cannabis Reform Coalition ( | ) ,>
S.A.O. Box #2 \|/ {
415 Student Union Building `-^-' ? )
UMASS, Amherst MA 01003 verdant@titan.ucs.umass.edu |____________ `--~ ;
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