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Report from Harm Reduction Conferenceby Cait Trainor Callen-November Coalition, Seattle, WAThe following is an abstract I delivered at the Harm Reduction Coalition 4th National Conference in Seattle, December 2002:
As of this date, despite the best efforts of family, lawyers, friends, even the Archbishop of Portland, who wrote in support of Cormac's appeal for commutation of sentence, this administration continues to deprive my grandson of his only surviving parent. I wish to explore, as highlighted in my son's case, disproportionality in sentencing, prosecutorial ignorance in the area of mental health, questionable BOP policies relative to the administration of the DAP Program and the District Court Judge's thinking regarding Apprendi and my sons's §2255 petition. These issues underlie those crucial decisions made by the authorities in my son's case, decisions which, in my opinion, implicate me in the destruction of my own family through the inappropriate use of my tax dollars. My presentation was sandwiched between Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance, a researcher from Russia, and other notables. I had an 18 by 24-inch poster of Cormac, JaShawn and myself. Was I nervous? You bet, but my voice didn't shake and thanks to an audience member's question I was able to give out the e-mail address of the November Coalition and introduce the petition which I then circulated in time to catch a few names before the meeting broke up.
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On
October 21, 2000, our 23 year-old son Cormac's 57-month sentence
for a nonviolent first-offense set the stage for the deaths of
his father, Liam, and his partner, Tina. Both were victims of
a head-on collision, while returning from a visit with Cormac
at FPC Sheridan, a minimum security Federal Prison Camp on the
infamous Highway 18 in Oregon. Three-year old JaShawn, the only
survivor in the car, escaping the crash with a seat belt burn
on his neck, lost two of the three most important people in his
world, his mom and grandfather, who had been providing a home
for him.