Can you imagine a mother without her oldest son? A father who will never make it home for his kids’ birthdays?
It’s not too late to give these families hope.
Watch this video and help us fight extreme sentences for nonviolent crimes – sentences that have reached absurd, tragic and costly heights.
Catherine Matthews cries when she thinks about telling her son what she ate for Thanksgiving dinner, knowing that he will never be at their table again to eat with her. Patrick, her son, is 25. He’s already been in prison for three years and he’ll be there until he dies – all for stealing a few tools and a welding machine.
Deloice Lewis has extraordinarily difficult holidays. Her son, Quierza Lewis, was sentenced to die behind bars for possession of crack cocaine when he was 25. Because of a three strikes law, he'll never come home.
DeLoice said that she has been so devastated by her son's sentence that it has drive her to contemplate suicide. She said, "At one time, I say, I wish I could just drive into a river. And it would take it away, the hurt that I was having. The hurt that it was doing to me. I just wanted to drown at one time...I was really ready to commit suicide. that's the only thing I could think of, 'cause I couldn't help my child."