NBC Nightly News: Kim Kardashian visits White House to talk prison and sentencing reform
June 04, 2018
Marc Mauer explains why sentencing reform is necessary to provide relief to the thousands of people in federal prison serving life without parole for non-violent drug offenses.
Marc Mauer was featured on NBC Nightly News to discuss Kim Kardashian West’s meeting with President Trump to advocate for relief on behalf of Alice Marie Johnson, a great-grandmother serving a life without parole sentence for a non-violent drug offense.
Because of our overly punitive federal drug laws, there are thousands of people like Alice Marie Johnson that need sentencing reform now. The Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act is necessary legislation that, if passed, would provide relief to those who would otherwise die in prison for non-violent drug offenses.
“The underlying problem is the mandatory minimum sentences applied in the War on Drugs. These have been a failure for 30 years. It’s time to turn that around,” says The Sentencing Project’s Marc Mauer.
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Following a nearly 700% increase between 1972 and 2009, the U.S. prison population declined 11% in the subsequent 10 years. At this rate of decline it will take 57 years — until 2078 — to cut the prison population in half
