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| Congress Looks to Relax Mandatory Prison Terms |
| By abcnews.go.com - HENRY C. JACKSON Associated Press |
| Published: 09/17/2013 |
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Every weekend, Cindy Martinson treks from her home in Mason City, Iowa, about 160 miles roundtrip to Waseca, Minn. She visits the federal prison there, where her daughter Mandy Martinson, a first-time offender, is in the middle of 15-year prison sentence. Cindy Martinson knows her daughter made mistakes and broke the law. Mandy Martinson was at a low point in her life, her mother said, addicted to methamphetamine when she allowed a drug dealer she was dating to move in with her. Within weeks, police raided her house. "She hurt herself and her family. And she knows that. But it is just not fair," Cindy Martinson, 64, said. "It's got to change not just for her. Everything is so overcrowded and it is just wrong." Concerns about both the fairness and the costs of cases like Mandy Martinson's have been growing in Congress, and the issue is gaining new speed as an unusual coalition of tea party conservatives and liberal Democrats push for the largest overhaul of federal sentencing guidelines yet. Read More. |
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