Catherine Toney, a Mobile native, wants people to know that she and many more African-American nonviolent offenders would not be free without the help of President Donald Trump.
Toney was the first woman released from prison due to recently passed federal criminal justice reform legislation spearheaded by the Trump administration.
While at the White House’s African American History Month reception as a special guest of the president and first lady, Toney was honored by Trump from the podium.
He said, “We are very proud to be joined tonight by a citizen who transformed her life while in prison and is now the first woman to be released under the FIRST STEP Act, Catherine Toney. Where’s Catherine?”
Black woman, Katherine Toney is the 1st person to be released from prison after 16 years for a minor drug offense under President Trump’s 1st Step Act Prison Reform Bill. This has gotten ZERO media coverage. Why is this woman not on Good-morning America telling her story? Why? pic.twitter.com/zbSLYyyHj9— Melissa A. (@TheRightMelissa) March 3, 2019
To a resounding round of applause and chants of “Catherine! Catherine! Catherine,” the Alabama woman then joined Trump, who invited her to address the crowd.
“I just want to thank the president and everybody that worked so hard — Jared [Kushner] — for working so hard on this prison reform FIRST STEP Act. Because if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be standing before you all today with my daughter and my granddaughter,” Toney said.
She added, “I’ve been incarcerated for 16 years, and it took the president and Jared and … everybody else to free me. And I’m so thankful. I’m so thankful to them. And I’m so thankful to God for the opportunity to be standing before you all. And thank you again, Mr. President.”
I, for one, am glad to see this. It’s time. It’s necessary. It’s also a good business decision. Our police do so much good work, but “lawyers write laws so lawyers make more money” resonates in my ears. The legal system is not at all fair, and it most certainly should be.
Not enough prisons are set up to rehabilitate people. Prisons are expensive and not being given the direction to fix the rehab problem.. Rehab should be the point of it all. Proper sentencing prior to incarceration is also simply not reality.
I can personally give you 2 perfect cases from right here on The Shore for comparison to show this. Both cases involve drugs. The man’s drug of choice was alcohol. After his 3rd conviction for D.U.I. (or it was his 3rd DUI) he was again DUI and struck an off duty State Trooper and killed him and his son who was also in the car. Horrible. 2 murders. His sentence ? 110 years plus 1. 100 years were suspended, so he had to serve 85% of the balance.
The other case ? A thief who stole between $200 and $500 at a time, and stole checks to cash to get $ for crack. She never confronted anyone. Was never violent in any way. Never used a gun or a knife. It was not her first offense. She committed several thefts and forged several checks. Her sentence ? 110 years plus 1. Suspend 100 years and make her serve 85% of the balance.
Is anybody out there as DISGUSTED as me ? They both deserve to go to jail. That is w/o a doubt the case. I don’t know exactly how many felonies he was charged with and convicted for, and I say the same about her case. The thing is, I don’t care. Any “justice system” that can put a totally non violent person away for the same period of time as a double murderer has got to be as screwed up as it can be, and it needs a lot of fixing.
Race has nothing to do with this imbalance. One is black and one is white. In my not so humble opinion, if the thief deserved 111 years, then the double murderer deserved 1,000. In either case, then no one gets rehabbed.
I think it’s time The Commonwealth follow in the footsteps of the First Step Program. I am sure the 2 I mention are not the only ones.
Oh wait, that’s right. We have quite the triumvirate leading the Commonwealth right now. Good Luck getting anything done. Richmond must be too close to The Swamp, and “the virus” is spreading.
Thank you President Trump. Wish journalists and reporters (you are not included) would make this known nationally. Thank you for printing the article.