As time winds down on President Obama’s tenure at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, John Legend used an open letter to bring attention to the cause of incarcerated, non-violent drug offenders. Legend championed the cause and cited Obama’s action to previously commute the sentences of offenders in August and October. Legend also referenced recent legislation passed in California, Oklahoma, Florida, and other states to reclassify various property and drug possession crimes from felonies to misdemeanors.
“I urge you to consider issuing categorical commutations to bring an end to the injustice that remains in our federal sentencing schemes,” Legend wrote in an open letter published by Rolling Stone. “For example, approximately 5,000 individuals are serving sentences based on prejudiced laws which punished drug crimes involving crack cocaine more severely than crimes involving powder cocaine. Rectifying these crack-powder disparities would not only correct the mistakes of the past, but could save taxpayers just over $150 million per year and keep with public sentiment about the over-incarceration and criminalization of drug crimes.”
Included within Legend’s plea was praise for President Obama’s call for federal agencies to end the practice of asking potential employees about their criminal history on job applications.
In September, Obama became the first sitting president to visit a federal prison. The Obama Administration, under Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, has also instructed federal officials to scale back the use of privately owned prisons.
Legend's letter essentially calls for a revision of recent clemency laws so cases are viewed categorically and not individually. This would be similar to legislative actions by former Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter in providing amnesty to those impacted by broad draft resistance statutes after the Vietnam War. Fellow activists and members of the music community such as Pusha T, Jim Jones, and Russell Simmons have made similar pleas, although they were more narrowly focused on the rock-powder disparity in cocaine sentencing.
You can read John Legend’s full open letter at Rolling Stone.
