Man Sent Back To Prison After Already Serving 21 Years For Crack

Federal Court Rules Black Man Must Return To Prison After Already Serving 21 Years

When the Obama Administration changed the guidelines for sentencing drug offenders for crack cocaine, it opened up a number of cases to be reduced, allowing some offenders to appeal their cases and be released early. Matthew Charles, a resident of Nashville, Tennessee had originally served 21 years of a 35-year sentence for selling crack cocaine to an undercover informant in 1996. He was later released, allowed to restart his life and become a model citizen.

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Now he has to go back to prison after the US Attorney’s office appealed the ruling, calling him a “career offender.”

“The whole thing pisses me off to be honest,” Charles’ friend John Hairston told Nashville Public Radio. “But it underscores how big a need there is for some reform in the justice system. I don’t care what they say.”

Since his release, Charles studied to get a GED and became a law clerk who helped other inmates understand their cases long after the public defender system had discarded them. Since his release he has held a job, volunteered in the community, build relationships with his family and girlfriend. Even while he was in prison, he never had a disciplinary infraction, not one. He even organized bible study courses and helped inmates who were illiterate with their own cases to help them from feeling embarrassed or ridiculed.

What a shame.

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