Third Strike Laws Have Been Hurting Entire Communities For Years. These Lawyers Are Trying To Change That

By Shammara Lawrence 


You hear information all of the time: the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world — a direct, decades-long result of harsh drug policies place on Earth out of the War on Illegal substances ignited by President Richard Nixon — with nearly 2.2 million people serving time as of 2016. Although what about the people who make up those numbers? Frequently, they’re erased. Brittany K. Barnett of the Buried Alive Project and MiAngel Cody of the Decarceration Collective are on a mission to change that.


The two attorneys have joined forces on a new initiative called the Third Strike Campaign, which sheds light on people who’ve been imprisoned for life for low-level drug offenses, often due to laws that imprison repeat offenders by default soon after a certain variety of expenses. The practice of Three Strikes laws started in Washington state in 1993; at present, 28 states have some such law on the books. Championed by “tough on crime” legislators, the laws impose a mandatory life sentence without parole on offenders for their third conviction. In some states, strikes could include nonviolent offenses, like low-level drug expenditures and petty theft. Federal offenders with three or more convictions are given mandatory life imprisonment for serious violent felonies or drug trafficking, meaning the manufacture, sale, importation, transportation, or distribution of outlawed substances like @crack and marijuana.


According to the Sentencing Project, 450,345 incarcerated people in the U.S. In 2016 were serving sentences related to drug offenses – more than 10 times the collection of people incarcerated in the nation for the same crimes in 1980. That same year, the Sentencing Project announced that 30 percent of the federal prison population were serving life sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. That’s 1,907 people who never stood a chance.


Through the Third Strike Campaign, Barnett and Cody aim to educate the public on the profound impact Three Strike laws have had on communities across the country, especially on people of color and individuals from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds. The multimedia project was launched on June 19th by their nonprofit law agencies, the Buried Alive Project and the Decarceration Collective. It incorporates a number of stories from people who have been sentenced under the pernicious law, and also federal judges advocating against it, told through written accounts, original recordings, and photos.


Barnett and Cody are widely known for working with Kim Kardashian West, who funded the 90 Days of Freedom campaign in February 2019. That campaign’s work ultimately freed 17 people under The initial Step Act, which was signed by President Donald Trump on December 21st, and gives inmates with good behavior, particularly those serving time for nonviolent drug offenses, further possibility to shorten their sentences.


One such person is Albert Reed, who grew up in the Winbrook housing assignments in White Plains, New York. Before he turned 17, he lost both parents to cancer and was suddenly tasked with looking right after his two sisters. He began selling narcotics to survive, and ultimately served 25 years of a life sentence for three separate drug crimes: At age 19, he procured probation for selling $20 worth of crack; at 22, he served two years for possessing 81 grams of coke. His third strike came at age 24: life imprisonment for selling 193 grams of crack. Reed was recently released from prison on May 16, 2019, as segment of the 90 Days to Freedom campaign.


Immediately after decades of explosive growth, the public and political advice on our prison system is finally shifting, and with policymakers across the political aisle have begun to show support for criminal justice reform in recent years. Still, there really are numerous of inmates beyond bars for low-level drug crimes due to draconian penal laws like because the Three Strikes Law — and The Third Strike project is bringing their stories to the forefront in hopes of inspiring change on a cultural level.


MTV News discussed with Cody and Albert Reed about the genesis of the Third Strike campaign, how Three Strike laws are applied in our criminal justice system, and what they hope people take away from the project.


MTV News: Where did the idea for the Third Strike Project come from? 


MiAngel Cody: Al Reed was one of the people that we got out throughout the [90 days of Freedom Campaign, and The opening Step Act]. That limited segment of legislation opened a sliver of a door for some people to get out. However in doing the 90 Days of Freedom campaign, there were a whole bunch of people that we had to send letters to and mention, “you don't qualify under this under The opening Step Act, we can't get you out of prison.”


We designed the Third Strike Project group in attempt to respond to and raise public awareness that, yes, The opening Step Act was fantastic, nevertheless it was just the opening step. And there really are people doing life today under yesterday's old law. Had the provisions of The initial Step Act been retroactive, we could be getting hundreds of people out of prison. I could be going all around the nation filing motions for people. Nevertheless The opening Step Act wasn't entirely made retroactive so there really are people who are still buried. We want people to understand that the law isn't although legitimate if it's not retroactive.


MTV: Under our current penal system, what’s the likelihood of people overturning life sentences for drugs? 


MiAngel: It's very, very slim. We're all happy that Al is free, although he is the exception, not the rule. His drug was crack and the law goes back and looks [specifically] at crack. Most people who get the three strikes life sentence, they're destined to perish in prison. The law isn't retroactively helping them.


One other thing I would mention is this life sentence was imposed by the prosecutor, not the judge. Once the prosecutor files the three strikes enhancement, the judge is required to impose life. The judge has no power. A lot of people In America think judges determine what the punishment is or a judge can change a sentence if he wants to. A lot of people don't notice that for three strikes federal cases, the judge had no power. So that's really critical because what prosecutors do is they punish people for going to trial. Although people think they have a constitutional right to a trial, the reality is you're going taxed and punished more harshly in the event you physical activity that right. And in case you don't cooperate, if you don't snitch, then you're going to get a three strikes enhancement. There really are a whole host of reasons why people don't cooperate: Maybe they have concerns about their own safety or the safety of their family member members.


MTV News: Al, what was the day you derived your life sentence like?


Albert Reed: I [remember] sitting there in front of the judge and he mentioned, “I have to sentence you to the mandatory statutory life term of imprisonment.” It shook me because I knew at that time that this is a death sentence. If I made the trip back to the holding facility, the judge was in the elevator [with me] as well as the prosecutor. The marshals had me handcuffed. The judge actually mentioned, “I really didn't aspire to give you that sentence nevertheless my hands are tied; the law is a law. There was nothing I might do at the time.”


I continued to go in there and fight [the] case although I just felt this is the judge, he can do what he wants to do, he has the power to do what he needs to. I did not have a understanding of the law. I sat there thinking, ‘how can I get this sentence overturned?’ My grandfathers habitually informed me that the things you do will eventually catch up with you. And then once [they] do catch up with you, you need to be a scientist par excellence to get out from under this trap that people have laid for guys like you doing the things that you're doing. That is what stuck with me for the full 25 years that I was incarcerated. It pushed me to live in a law library to keep abreast of the laws of what's going on out here in world. The passion of family member helped keep me going [and] helped me notice that a lot of things had to change. 


MTV News: Any time as soon as you were incarcerated, did you meet other inmates in similar circumstances?


Reed: In the law library, I saw guys with the same three-strikes sentence. We all got with each other and attempted to calculate ways based on new laws that were coming into effect, how to go about and file certain motions and petitions to the court so that we can get out. In the event you don't file nothing, then you're going to continue to keep the sentence. We were actively attempting to do something to facilitate our release from prison.


you've got to understand, most of us really did not have a college education. We might have dropped out of high school, may have dropped out of middle school even. So right now that you are in prison and so they tell you have each year to repair your motions or the courts are going to block you, we're really at a disadvantage. Likeminds had to work with each other attempt to overturn the situation.


MTV News: What are some typical misconceptions you often hear about people who sell drugs? 


Reed: It's not like everybody wants to sell illegal narcotics because it's a dangerous lifestyle. You could lose your life. I've seen loved ones get kidnapped. I've seen homicides. It's a dangerous firm. Nobody wants to sell illegal narcotics. In the event if you've another possibility to create make some cash or in the event if you've the possibility to acquire a skill that can bring you some cash and you could take care of yourself and your family members, that's what the average person is going to do.


Although where I grew up, there were no jobs. There were no places where we may go to develop a skill because even in schools, the skills were taken out of [the] school system. Here we are in a school system where we're not learning anything [and] we feel like it's a waste of time because we're not learning anything that can bring us some revenue when we're in a poverty-stricken area. All those things are what we need in today's society, especially in these areas where you visualize all this crime and drug dealing.


MTV News: What do you suggest about the changing public perception around pot as of late — especially considering how several Black and brown people have felonies or are still serving time for drugs?


Cody: Decriminalization of weed is happening on a racially discriminatory level. Some people can smoke weed and do so freely without criminal prosecution. Those folks are generally not Black people or people of color.


I live on the South Side of Chicago, where young black boys are still being pulled over and their cars are being searched because officers mention they smelled pot, although pot is decriminalized in Chicago. And the state is also profiting off the privatization of prisons and the jobs that prisons bring. So it's categorize kind of like the state wants to have it both ways: they aspire to tax the weed industry while also punish people who have previously been involved in the pot industry and profit off of their human caging. Decriminalization is crucial because it means that fewer folks are going into the prison pipeline. Although in group for it to be morally legitimate in this nation, it has to be racially fair and yes it has to be retroactive.


Reed: now, profits are going to overrule whether or not it's fair for somebody who has a pot offense to get a sentence overturned. It's the correct thing to do, no question. That's what we're pushing for, that's what we aspire to be able to see. Yet any time cash and profit is involved, guys are going to be serving time that's unfair.


MTV News: What does a fair criminal justice system look like to the both of you?


Cody: I am not a criminal justice reform contributor because I don't believe we have ever had true criminal justice In the United States. It hasn't nevertheless been place on Earth, group in attempt to be reformed. There hasn't been a time In the
U.S. Where we weren't profiting in some way off of human caging however, particularly people of color and poor people.


What I'm hopeful for is that we are going to one day have true criminal justice. I hope we'll have a measured and racially fair criminal justice system and one that doesn't rely on putting people in cages. I think America addicted to incarceration. That's really what we exist in, a system where we as a society have grown addicted to putting people in cells and thinking that that solve our problems. We categorize kind of desire to numb our own fear and all concerns by putting people in prison. I hope that we are going to become sober from our own addiction to incarceration first.


Reed: I agree with MiAngel, insofar as it hasn't been place on Earth however for us to really mention that's there's a fair playing field for all. I believe that what the seed is, is what the fruit will bear and yes it wasn't planed to be fair as soon as it comes to people of color.


We're just addressing the disparities that lasted a generation. The least we can do is enlighten people as to what's really going on so that they can make informed decisions, and realize the perils and the traps that are out there.