Rodney Mack (second from right) and Ronald Mack (far left) (photo courtesy of FAMM)
The Justice Department needs to stop trying to send Rodney and Ronald Mack back to federal prison for another decade. The brothers have already served 20 years and were released late last year.
I first met the Mack brothers last December in Washington, D.C. The organization I run invited them — and others who had been released early from prison because of reforms in the First Step Act — to meet and thank members of Congress and White House officials who championed that legislation. The Macks had only been out of prison for a few weeks when they, some family members, and two former co-defendants who also were granted early release, traveled to Washington to join us.
More than two decades ago, the Macks went to prison for a drug conspiracy involving crack cocaine. Because of the racially discriminatory disparity between crack and powder cocaine-related sentences, the brothers were sentenced to life in prison. (A change in the sentencing guidelines later reduced their sentences to 30 years.) In 2010, Congress reduced the crack-powder disparity, but didn’t make the change retroactive. The First Step Act finally corrected that injustice in 2018, and the Macks (and more than 2,000 others) finally got justice and were released.
When they came to Washington, Rodney and Ronald were still figuring out how to use their new smartphones, but they sure knew how to use the camera function. They wanted pictures of everything and everyone. They laughed easily. They seemed happy and humbled to be in the nation’s capital and to have the chance to meet the political leaders who made it possible.
Many of our meetings on Capitol Hill were emotional. Offices would turn quiet as former prisoners and their family members choked back tears while thanking lawmakers for giving them a second chance. More than a couple members of Congress were moved to tears, too. For some of them, it was a rare opportunity to come face to face with good people that our justice system nearly threw away.
Then insanity struck. Halfway through our two days of meetings, the Mack brothers found me as our group was eating lunch in an empty congressional hearing room. They looked stricken. They had just received a phone call from their lawyer, who informed them that the U.S. Attorney planned to appeal their release. The U.S. Attorney was arguing that they didn’t qualify for relief under the First Step Act because they had also been convicted of dealing powder cocaine, and those penalties hadn’t changed.
The Macks’ judge, the same one who sentenced them to life in 2002, rejected that argument. She said the verdict sheet made clear that the crack charges were what determined their sentence. Moreover, she lavished praise on the Macks and their co-defendants for their behavior while in prison, which included earning multiple educational degrees and almost no disciplinary infractions.
On the last day to appeal, as the Macks visited Washington, the Justice Department formally announced its intent to send them back to prison for another decade. I told Rodney and Ronald that the government had appealed other First Step Act releases and lost almost all of them. In some cases, the government notified the court of its intention to appeal and then later declined to move forward. We hoped that is what would happen with the Macks, who did their best to enjoy the rest of their trip.
Fast forward from last December and the Justice Department is still moving forward with its appeal. Surely Attorney General Bill Barr knows that now is not the time to be sending anyone to our federal prisons unless it’s absolutely necessary. Approximately 7,000 prisoners and staff have tested positive for COVID-19, and, as of this writing, 1,500 people are still fighting it and 87 have died. Barr clearly knows the risks because he has authorized more than 3,000 people to move to home confinement to reduce the disease’s spread.
Barr also must be aware that Congress and President Donald Trump agreed to reduce crack-related sentences retroactively because the old crack-powder disparity was one of the most indefensibly discriminatory features of a justice system that many black Americans were protesting since long before George Floyd was killed. The Macks, their co-defendants, and tens of thousands of mostly black Americans already served far more time than was necessary for their crimes.
These brothers do not need to spend another day in prison, let alone another decade. They have paid their debt to society. After seven months of reconnecting with their families, finding work, and reintegrating into society, it would be cruel to send them back to prison. And it would be useless from a public safety perspective.
This Justice Department said justice required dropping charges against Michael Flynn. If that is so, then justice is screaming out to leave Rodney and Ronald Mack alone.
Kevin Ring is a former Capitol Hill staffer, Biglaw partner, and federal lobbyist. He is currently the president of FAMM, a nonprofit, nonpartisan criminal justice reform advocacy group. Back when ATL still had comments, “FREE KEVIN RING” was briefly a meme. You can follow him on Twitter @KevinARing.