Pubdate: Fri, 02 Jan 2004 Source: News & Observer (NC) Copyright: 2004 The News and Observer Publishing Company Contact: http://www.news-observer.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/304 Author: Michael Grimsley Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n1855/a09.html COCAINE BLUES The writer of a Dec. 1 People's Forum letter defended the incarceration of those charged with possessing cocaine. She stated that no one who has had a family member or loved one addicted to cocaine or crack would want them to go unpunished. She should speak for herself. The thousands of people who have loved ones serving large amounts of time for very small amounts of cocaine and for petty crimes that stem from trying to support their habits very much want to see their loved ones come home. I'm serving a 10-to-13 year sentence from which I entered a plea of guilty to a tiny amount of cocaine and then was sentenced as a habitual criminal. I've been incarcerated for almost four years now, and I see guys coming in with convictions for rape, robbery and sex acts with children and even little babies with less time than inmates whose record clearly shows that this man was no more than a drug user and has only committed petty crime. The far more serious crimes need to be more the issue, because if a man steals a pocketbook, the money and credit cards can be replaced; if a man has a drug problem, he can be sent through treatment and hopefully stay clean and sober; but if a man does 10, 15 or 20 years in prison, those years can never be replaced. I'm not trying to justify my wrongdoing or anybody else's, but it just seems only fair that the time fit the crime. I still sit in here with more time than some murderers and I have never committed a violent crime in my life. Michael Grimsley Bayboro (The writer is an inmate at Pamlico Correctional Institution.) - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake