We had some Page One fun with President Trump\u2019s parley with reality star Kim Kardashian, but we\u2019ll admit she had fair points to make. Kardashian\u2026<\/b>
\nWe had some Page One fun with President Trump\u2019s parley with reality star Kim Kardashian, but we\u2019ll admit she had fair points to make.
Kardashian was lobbying for criminal-justice reform and, in particular, clemency for great-grandmother Alice Marie Johnson, who at 63 has done 21 years of a life sentence for drug conspiracy and money-laundering.
True, Johnson went down the wrong path when \u2014 after a divorce, the loss of her job and house and the death of her youngest son \u2014 she hooked up with a drug ring. \u201cI made one of the worst decisions of my life to make some quick money,\u201d she admits.
She says she just passed along messages, and adds that her offenses were non-violent \u2014 though her case involved Colombian drug dealers \u201ctrading tons of cocaine for millions of dollars in cash,\u201d The Tennessean reported back then.
We won\u2019t minimize the lives lost and ruined thanks to such trafficking. Yet her life sentence with no possibility of parole still seems overly harsh. Her conviction was her first, and she has a good prison record. She has already lost a big chunk of her life behind bars; she seems deserving of a second chance.
Others surely do, too. Mandatory sentences, often with no chance of parole, became popular at the height of America\u2019s crime wave. Yet numerous nonviolent inmates with good records may be able to lead perfectly constructive lives if freed.
In May, the House passed the First Step Act, which aims to reduce recidivism and cut the prison population (and costs) through rehab and training programs for low-level convicts. The Senate should, too.
And Congress absolutely must revisit the overly tough sentencing laws that have now become outdated and counterproductive. After all, you don\u2019t have to be a reality star to understand today\u2019s troubled criminal-justice realities.<\/p>\n

\n

Similarity rank: 56<\/div>\n

Sentiment rank: -0.2<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

TW posts: 4<\/div>\n

TW reposts: 3<\/div>\n

TW likes: 0<\/div>\n

TW sentiment: 10<\/div>\n<\/div>\n