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Comment by wtvanhest | Hacker News Reader

I donated $500 (and convinced my company to match $500) for FAMM, Families Against Mandatory Minimums last year. Its not perfect, but at least they are trying to make a dent in the number of people in prison, especially those with long sentences which may not make logical sense due to strict mandatory minimum laws.

I'm going to donate some more this year, and hopefully get my company to increase their donation level but I'm always interested in finding the group that will have the maximum positive impact to donate to. If anyone has any other ideas for higher impact groups, I'm interested in knowing about them.

I've ruled out all the legalize drugs groups because I won't be able to get a major corporation to donate to them even though I think they are worthwhile causes.

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Wow, thank you for donating. I spent 5 years in federal prison, and the FAMM newsletters (FAMM-grams, they were called) were always helpful, and usually contained a glimmer of hope for fixing sentencing disparity. I knew plenty of people (non-violent drug offenders) with insane sentences of 10, 20, 30 years. Anyway, I just want to make sure you know that your donation actually does make a difference to real people.

What crime was it?

First Google search result of his name: http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/1997/12/8854

Interesting read.

Fuck. That's a cruel and unusual punishment, although a judge in his 50s wouldn't see it that way in 1995. It's basically the pre-digital age equivalent of banning a person from reading for seven years.

Or 50 years.

R.I.P.

A.S.

The way I see it, I may have a lot of student debt, but at least I'm not being held in prison for 20+ years because of some arbitrary mandatory minimum law created by a politician I probably elected.

FAMM, NORML and the rest of the groups fighting this have a huge problem. People that are successful have very limited and usually no exposure to anyone that has been in prison. This disconnect is making it extremely difficult for them to raise the money they nee to fight this huge problem we have.

The solution which I am struggling to find would involve creating a message that touches the middle class. Without that message a ridiculous number of people will continue to spend a long time in prison that shouldn't be there.

For anyone a little less familiar with mandatory minimum sentencing -- I highly recommend the documentary 'The House I Live In'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0atL1HSwi8

Streams instantly on Netflix - one of the most important documentaries I've ever seen

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