Celebrities and Civil Rights Leaders Ask Obama to Change Drug Laws
More than 100 entertainers, civil rights leaders and other
notable citizens have signed a letter to President Obama, asking him to
change the nation’s drug laws. The group is urging him to replace jail
sentences with intervention and rehabilitation for non-violent drug
offenders, the Associated Press reports.
They asked the president to form a panel to deal with clemency
requests, and to support a measure to let judges waive mandatory minimum
sentences.
“The greatest victims of the prison industrial complex are our nation’s children,” the letter
states. “Hundreds of thousands of children have lost a parent to long
prison sentences for non-violent drug offenses, leaving these children
to fend for themselves. Many of these children end up in the criminal
justice system, which comes as no surprise as studies have shown the
link between incarceration and broken families, juvenile delinquency,
violence and poverty.”
Celebrities who signed the letter include Scarlett Johansson, Kim
Kardashian, Will Smith, Jennifer Hudson, Nicki Minaj and Susan Sarandon.
The letter was also signed by civil rights leaders and advocates such
as Harry Belafonte, Julian Bond, Dr. Benjamin Chavis and Rev. Jesse
Jackson. Hip-hop magnate Russell Simmons helped assemble the group, the
AP notes. Some religious leaders, politicians, music industry
executives, academics, business leaders and athletes also added their
names.
