The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

With new legislation to reform Michigan's mandatory minimum drug laws in the pipeline, Garcia, of Lapeer, is one face behind a new push to change drug sentencing laws hailed as the stiffest in the nation.

Drum, a former Marine and Lake Orion businessman, was arrested in Birmingham for helping an accomplice deliver 650 grams of cocaine. Under the socalled "650 Lifer Law" of 1978, he was sentenced to mandatory life without parole plus two consecutive 10- to 20-year sentences.

Two subsequent rounds of reforms to the law - inserting parole-eligibility windows into 650 Lifer sentences and giving judges more flexibility in determining sentencing for drug crimes - contained unintended loopholes that largely have not helped Drum.

But legislation introduced this session by state Rep. Bill McConico, a Detroit Democrat who championed earlier reforms in 2002, may change that. His three-bill package would provide earlier parole eligibility for those sentenced before the latest reforms took effect in 2003 and, most importantly for Drum's case, make consecutive sentences concurrent.

What that could mean for Drum, a model prisoner whose record is otherwise clean, is eligibility for parole in December 2008. Under current law, Drum would have to first serve at least half of each of his consecutive, 10-year minimum sentences, making him ineligible for parole until 2018, at age 82.

"If these three bills from McConico are passed, his case would automatically be reviewed by the parole board," Garcia said. "If not ... we would try for another commutation."

That would have to wait another two years, however. In November, the Michigan Parole Board recommended against Garcia's request to commute her brother's sentence. Gov. Jennifer Granholm turned down the request Jan. 30.

In the meantime, Garcia has been writing letters and participating in roundtable discussions in Lansing with lawmakers and the advocacy group Families Against Mandatory Minimums, which is pushing the legislation. Garcia said she talks with her brother at least twice a week.

"He's doing pretty good, actually. His spirits are pretty up, considering the fact that he was turned down."

Laura Sager, national campaign director for Families Against Mandatory Minimums, said the new bills address unintended glitches in previous reforms that excluded prisoners such as Drum. She said about 155 inmates remain imprisoned under the 650 law in spite of earlier reforms.

The proposed reforms would also affect those imprisoned on lesser drug offenses whose sentences are longer than those convicted for possessing larger quantities of drugs, she said.

"People will still serve very severe sentences even after these reforms. ... It doesn't change the sentence; it only changes the parole availability," Sager said.

Sager said the original 650 Lifer Law succeeded mostly in snaring low-level, nonviolent offenders, many of them addicts with minor involvement in the drug trade. Many could easily become productive, taxpaying citizens, she said.

Garcia has said her brother was a user who rarely sold drugs.

"A person cannot give up hope," she said. "Because if they give up hope, all is lost. And Larry has a lot of life left."

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