Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women

Almost three years after taking office, President Barack Obama has issued his first commutation to a convict serving time in a federal prison.

The White House announced Monday that Obama commuted the nearly 22-year prison sentence of Eugenia Jennings, 34, a mother of three from Alton, Ill. who pled guilty in 2000 to selling 13.9 grams of crack cocaine to a police informant. She received the two-decades-plus prison term because she had two prior state drug sale convictions.

In testimony before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee in 2009, Jennings's brother Cedric Parker said her sister was a drug addict, alcohol abuser and victim of sexual assault, who was trying to provide for her children. Parker also said Jennings, who is black, would have gotten half as much prison time if she was convicted of dealing in powdered cocaine rather than the crack form.

"Eugenia Jennings’s 22-year sentence for her nonviolent offense was overkill," Julie Stewart of Families Against Mandatory Minimums said in a statement Monday night. "Today, President Obama rights that wrong and we are grateful to him. We urge the President to continue exercising his clemency power and grant more commutations to the many deserving federal prisoners, like Eugenia, who have paid a hefty price for their mistakes and deserve a second chance.”

Obama ordered that Jennings be released Dec. 21.

Another advocate for greater presidential use of the clemency power, former Justice Department pardon Attorney Margaret Love, also welcomed the news of Obama's first commutation.

"I'm very pleased," Love said. "I hope that it is a sign he intends to look at the many other people in federal prisons serving very long crack sentences which his own administration has called unjust."

FAMM's statement said that the commutation for Jennings was backed by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and that Jennings is receiving treatment for cancer. She is currently at a federal prison medical facility in Fort Worth, Texas, according to the Bureau of Prisons web site.

It is unclear how, if at all, Jennings's illness affected Obama's decision to grant the commutation. White House spokesman Matt Lehrich said he could not comment on specific cases.

Love said the president's grant of a single commutation after 34 months in office was hard to interpret. "His exercise really does appear to be a bit random, like a lightning strike," she said.

Prior to the commutation, Jennings was due to be released in June 2019, the BOP site indicates. Long-term prisoners normally receive a reduction of about 15 percent of their sentence for so-called "good time." Congress voted in 1984 to eliminate parole in the federal system.

Jennings had asked a federal judge to reduce her sentence after the federal sentencing commission changed the guidelines for cocaine offenses, but the judge ruled in 2009 that he had no authority to do so because she was sentenced as a "career offender" and there had been no reduction for that category.

Obama also issued five pardons on Monday, bringing to 22 the number he has issued since taking office. All have been to prisoners who had long since completed their sentences or who never served prison time to begin with.

"The President concluded that clemency was warranted for these individuals because they demonstrated genuine remorse for their crimes and remarkable rehabilitation into law-abiding, productive citizens and active members of their communities," Lehrich said of the five pardons and one commutation announced Monday.

CLARIFICATION: Federal prisoners' sentences are usually reduced by about 15% for "good time," slightly more than originally stated in this post. Under some circumstances, convicts can also get a year knocked off their sentences by completing a substance abuse treatment program.

Original story at http://www.politico.com/blogs/joshgerstein/1111/Obama_issues_his_first_commutation_to_federal_prisoner.html

Thanks to Lois at The Real Cost of Prisons Project for bringing this to my attention!