Reform drug sentencing laws | Opinion
Corey Jacobs, co-founder of the Buried Alive Project, writes that it's time to reform America's 1980s-era drug sentencing laws.President Joe Biden’s recent decision to pardon all prior federal offenses for simple marijuana possession is a consequential step on the pathway to true justice. But it’s just a first step. Nearly 4,000 Americans are serving life sentences for drug offenses without the possibility of parole.
I’m an example of the good that can come from releasing people unjustly sentenced. I was given 16 concurrent life sentences for a federal drug offense when I was 30 years old. It was my first felony conviction, and I was sent to a high-security prison in Louisiana, nicknamed “Bloody Pollock” for its rate of violence. I never gave up. I bettered myself through education. I devoted time to teaching other men in prison the life skills they’d need after release.
There are three individuals whom the Buried Alive Project is prioritizing, individuals who have paid their debt to society and should be freed: Tony Lewis Sr., Edward Sotelo and Joe Sotelo. Edward and Joe Sotelo, brothers from Texas, have been in prison since 1995, both serving life sentences for drug offenses. They were raised by a drug-addict father who was in and out of prison. He taught his children how to sell drugs when they were as young as 12 years old. That’s all they ever knew. They were convicted as part of a conspiracy, and everyone has returned home, except them.
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