"Our marriages rarely last, and prisoners are usually shipped far from their homes. Contact with our children is minimal and often lost. Within about two years the lives of all concerned are irrevocably altered, generally for the worst: wives divorce and remarry; children grow up. The prisoner watches it all from the glass coffin of a prison cell. Behind the wire we are subjected to unremitting harassment, degradation, danger and discomfort, separated from virtually everything that makes life worthwhile. The years pass, one into the next, and many men simply go around the bend." - G. Patrick Callahan, co-founder of the November Coalition

From the time of arrest through imprisonment, drug defendants suffer severe restrictions on their human and constitutional rights. Many criminal justice experts insist there is a "drug exception" to each protection listed in the Bill of Rights.

Working in prison factories for as little as 12¢ an hour, drug law violators are at the mercy of hastily trained guards and predatory inmates. In a prison system crippled by overcrowding and budget restrictions, human rights abuses abound.

Meet the People Behind The U.S. Sentencing Guidelines

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