This was the 25th Christmas of my son’s natural life sentence, a sentence he received in 1998 at 21 years old for a non-fatal, no physical /contact crime.
My son’s crime was robbery with a firearm, which is considered a violent crime, as it should be. Certainly, his crimes warranted a prison sentence but not a natural life sentence.
Natural life sentences are often referred to as death by death by incarceration. Under normal state sentencing guidelines my son would have received between nine and 16 years for his crimes. Florida’s Prisoner Releasee Reoffender mandatory maximum guideline – PRR – changed that. PRR directs prosecutors to seek the maximum sentence for someone who commits a felony within three years of leaving prison, which often means a lifetime behind bars.
However, in my son’s case, his second offense was committed before PRR was enacted. The state prosecuting attorney in St. Lucie County chose to charge him under PRR anyway, by retroacting the guidelines. The presiding judge went on record three times stating she did not agree with a life sentence and went as far to say she believed PRR to be unconstitutional. However, she also went on record to say she had no choice, her hands were tied.
In 1995 at age 19, my son, William Jennings, was convicted of simple robbery and for that he received an 18-month sentence. He completed that sentence in a Department of Corrections facility in South Florida. During that incarceration there was no drug treatment, no mental health counseling, and to make things worse, we would learn after the fact that drugs were readily available on the inside.
My son is no longer the same troubled drug addicted young man that he was in 1998, when he was arrested and convicted of new charges of robbery with a firearm and sentenced to natural life in prison.He is a good man with a good heart. For the estimated $200 my son stole it has now cost the state more than $500,000, and if he lives to be in his 70s, it will cost the state another $700,000.
There are approximately 1,800 others like my son who are serving natural life under PRR for non-fatal, no physical contact crimes. The incarceration cost per inmate per year is approximately $28,042. That costs the state a staggering estimated $ 50,475,600 a year, and an astronomical $1,009,512,000 in 20 years, according to an investigative journalism report by Carey Aspinwall for The Marshall Project.
Is this how we want state taxpayers’ money spent? Locking up people for life, who never took a life, who caused no physical harm. My son’s crimes were serious but not heinous, he is not a monster who deserves to die in prison, but he will if these laws are not changed.
We are four generations and two decades into my son’s natural life sentence. Please help me bring my son home and everyone who is serving a life without parole sentence for non-fatal and no physical contact crimes.
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Audrey Jennings Hudgins lives in Lamont, FL, and is founder of Operation Overtime Florida Unjust Life Sentence Project. Operation Overtime holds monthly rallies at the Historic Capitol front steps from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., with next scheduled for Jan. 11. Reach her at operationovertime@aol.com
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