My son John E. Jackson Jr. has been sitting in a Federal Prison now for 10 years for a drug charge. Because this was his third offense, he received the maximum sentence of 18-21 years. for a few grams of crack cocaine which is not pure cocaine but because of our law, they count it as pure cocaine.. John is not a violent person and never has been. His first two offenses were non-violent. John has two little girls who will be in their 20's by the time he gets out.

This Justice system needs to revise their sentencing protocols. There are murderers who get less time than that. They get released after 9-10 years and go out and kill again. Non-violent Inmates are sitting in prison right now in the same situation as John and its not fair. The sentence should fit the crime. There are celebrities who get caught with pure cocaine at lease 3-4 times and are they in prison? NO!

This law is prejudicial. I refer to the Social Dominance Theory

(Social Dominance Theory would identify caucasians as the hegemonic group – i.e. the richer, more powerful, higher-status – and would predict that this group would behave in ways to reinforce and maintain that hegemony. Consistent with this prediction is the fact that the United States’ Congress has historically been primarily white as is the hypothesis that the legislation created by such a congress would seek to derogate minorites with the purpose of maintaining existing inequalities. The disproportionately-high incarceration rate of African-Americans for cocaine-related crimes supports this hypothesis. In addition, law enforcement shows a similarly striking pattern of bias – despite public health data showing that two-thirds of crack cocaine users are non-black, 80% of people arrested for crack-related crimes are black. The sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine has contributed to the imprisonment of African Americans at six times the rate of whites.)

A Justice system that would take away a person from their family for 20 years for a Non-violent crime is a Justice system that needs to rethink its sentencing laws.

I would like to see John get out in time at least to see his girls graduate and to be able to spend time with them before they are grown.

I am 66 years old and I would like to see John released before I leave this world.

This petition is truly John's "LAST RESORT" for an early release.

Thank you very much all of you who sign this petition.