“No one should be in prison for cannabis,” Stephanie Shepard, executive director of the Last Prisoner Project, told the room.
At Monday morning’s SXSW panel Cannabis Prisoners in the Era of Legalization, speakers from the Last Prisoner Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to cannabis criminal justice reform, emphasized how senseless it is that people are still serving decades-long sentences for cannabis-related offenses when 87% of Americans support some form of cannabis legalization.
Cannabis is currently under review by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to be rescheduled from a Schedule I substance to Schedule III. Cannabis use is medically or recreationally legal in most U.S. states, and only fully illegal in four. It’s being marketed as medical and recreational products, creating entire industries, Shepard emphasized.
“So while everyone’s super excited about rescheduling, I’m glad there’s a conversation about cannabis. That’s great, but it doesn’t have any sort of relief for the people who are sitting in [prison] for cannabis,” Shepard continued, who served time herself for a nonviolent cannabis offense.
Millions of individuals are still serving time for past prohibition policies, even in states that now have legal drug markets, Last Prisoner Project emphasizes on its website. “When you legalize cannabis, it means moving forward, that no one’s getting penalties for cannabis. It doesn’t specifically or exclusively do retroactive relief,” Shepard said.
For that reason, Last Prisoner Project focuses its policy efforts on retroactive criminal justice, working with individual states like California, New Mexico, and Virginia on policy that exonerates individuals with existing cannabis charges and clears permanent records.
“I think it’s lost on people that if you get stopped with a ticket, that stays on your criminal record and follows you for life, and there’s a whole host of collateral consequences,” said Adrian Rocha, director of policy at the Last Prisoner Project. “We have individuals who can’t get life insurance … who can’t apply for Pell grants, federal housing assistance.”
Rocha emphasized that in Texas, especially amidst rising activity by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities, a cannabis charge can be dangerous for non-citizens.
“If you have to go through a border checkpoint and you have a simple possession charge – not even a conviction, just a charge – that makes you deportable,” Rocha continued. “A lot of individuals made a decision when they were 19 to try a joint for the first time, and they were seen by a cop.”
Rocha also made the argument that enforcing outdated cannabis law is expensive and unnecessary for the taxpayer. “You think about the average cost of incarcerating Kevin Allen in Louisiana: The average cost per individual who’s incarcerated is $48,000, so that adds up,” Rocha said, referring to one of the organization’s clients incarcerated for cannabis.
“Kevin’s going to be serving at least another 10 years … and at what cost?” Rocha asked, noting that Texas is only continuing to make cannabis arrests. “What’s the return on public safety?”
