The Quality of Mercy
- By Jim Hicks
Dear Eric Holder:
I write, as one of a growing chorus of voices, to ask you to grant early release to Dicky Joe Jackson, a convicted felon currently serving time in the federal penitentiary in Forrest City, Arkansas. Jackson was sentenced in 1996 of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, in addition to several lesser, related offenses. In making this request, I in no way ignore the horrendous cost to our society brought by addictive drugs, or by the criminal, police, juridical, and medical infrastructure that responds to what can only be called our national epidemic of addiction. I do, however, believe that the war on drugs, like other recent wars, has long been fought on battlefields where the preponderance of victims are civilians. For that reason alone, it is long past time for this war—and for Joe Jackson’s term in prison—to be brought to an end.
I should add that I myself have never met the man, nor any member of his family. What I know of his case comes from the very moving account recently given by J. Malcolm Garcia, in an essay published by Guernica, a magazine of art & politics. And I do know Malcolm. The Massachusetts Review, which I edit, has published his work several times; in our summer issue, we’ll be featuring another nonfiction piece from him about the war in Syria.
In that upcoming essay, as in the Guernica article, Malcolm makes clear what good writing can sometimes do—teach us to see and understand the world, and prepare us to act in it. I’ve learned to follow Malcolm’s work, to trust his instincts and choices, and I know well how strongly he feels about this cause in particular. Attorney General Holder, if you and the Department of Justice decide to grant this petition, a deep wrong and injury will be addressed, and in some measure corrected.
Dicky Joe Jackson did commit the crime for which he was sentenced, no doubt about it. He drove a truck and illegally transported methamphetamine on a number of occasions. But there is also no doubt about his motive: like millions of Americans at the time, Jackson’s family had lost their medical insurance, and, without hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay medical bills, his two-year-old son Cody was likely to die from a rare, congenital immune deficiency, Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome. Cody is now twenty-three and he owes his life to his father’s crime. Jackson was himself sentenced to life in prison, and has already served eighteen years.
As Garcia notes, “Among those advocating for Jackson’s release is the man who prosecuted him, former Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Snipes.” “In 2013, Snipes wrote a letter on behalf of Jackson in support of the family’s effort to obtain clemency or a pardon.” Snipes comments, in his interview with Garcia, “[Jackson] potentially did this because he didn’t know of any other way to take care of his kid. As a prosecutor, I can say, ‘Life, life, life,’ but we’re supposed to seek justice.”
The opinion of his former prosecutor does not, of course, stand alone. Even before sentencing, his Texas judge, John McBryde—later publically reprimanded for abuse of judicial power—was given a packet of forty letters from family, friends, and other members of the community, all requesting leniency for Jackson. To no avail. On the other hand, the man who had supplied the drugs for transport, and who testified against Jackson, received only ten years.
When the subject is drugs, or crime, or addiction, the citizens of the United States tend to take a hard line, and there’s rarely an excess of empathy. During apartheid, South Africa was the sole country to imprison more of its people per capita than we did; since that time, we’ve run away with the honors. It may be hard, perhaps, to imagine oneself as the perpetrator of a crime, just as it was difficult, until recently, to envisage oneself as the subject of government surveillance. Far easier, perhaps, for you to see yourself as a potential victim, and to side with those who simply want to throw away the keys. On the other hand, who among us does not fear catastrophic illness, and has not worried that a loved one might be taken from them? And who can say what we might not do, if such a fear became our reality?
The greatest strength in J. Malcolm Garcia’s portrait of this case, other than simply calling our attention to it, is his reminder that a prison sentence never punishes an individual alone. His essay gives heart-rending portraits of Jackson’s mother, his stepmother, and his wife (now ex-wife, since Joe insisted that she move on—though they still talk on the phone each week). It closes by summarizing the life stories of his three children, April, Jon, and Cole Jackson. April donated bone marrow so Cole could live; Jon, like his father, is crazy about trucks; Cole only got to know his father on prison visits. Today all three work together in the print shop that April and Jon own.
Garcia’s point is simple, but becomes real only in the telling. When Dicky Joe Jackson was given life for his crimes, his family suffered the same sentence.
Many more things can and should be said about this case, but I think I’ll leave it there and trust that others will add their voices to this petition. Like many, I have long felt that the many failures of our health care system should themselves be described as criminal, and I do appreciate the steps that President Obama has taken to assure that children like Cole Jackson, and their parents, will never again face such impossible obstacles and decisions.
It is often said that the most difficult decision for a President to make is to take the country to war. History, however, teaches us that another conclusion is even more difficult, and that reaching it is more rare—the realization that a war of choice was a mistake. Let’s face it at last: declaring war on drugs was a blunder, and it’s time to end it.
It’s also high time to bring Dicky Joe Jackson home.
Sincerely,
Jim Hicks, Editor
The Massachusetts Review
Additional letters and petitions to support early release for Dicky Joe Jackson should be sent directly to J. Malcolm Garcia at mucker05@yahoo.com
