Stephanie Shepard has had unsettling feelings in the pit of her stomach ever since she was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute marijuana. She couldn’t believe that a drug sentence’s mandatory minimum carried more weight than a homicide-related offense.
Before Shepard was transferred from New York to a federal prison in Connecticut, recreational use of marijuana was not legalized anywhere in the country.
But after completing nine years of her sentence, Shepard was released in 2019, and the perception of marijuana had changed. She saw advertisements for marijuana-infused meals and smoke shops. Just days before, Shepard had been sitting in a prison cell in California, her fourth and last transfer, for the same offense that had morphed into a customer service representative’s job description.
“That’s what ignited my activism,” Shepard, 54, told Capital B less than two weeks after she completed five years of probation. “That’s the very moment that I really realized what this industry was becoming, what it was and who’s paying the price for it, and unfortunately, disproportionately, that is Black and brown people. That’s why this action in Maryland is very important.”
Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed an executive order on Monday that made the state the first in the country to heed President Joe Biden’s call to action for governors to pardon individuals with misdemeanor marijuana-related convictions that have torn apart Black families and caused lifelong consequences for millions for far too long.
Moore pardoned more than 175,000 marijuana convictions; Maryland voters legalized the sale and purchase of recreational marijuana last year.
However, Shepard said pardons aren’t enough.
During her incarceration, Shepard had been transferred to federal women’s facilities across the country and eventually ended up in California closer to her family. With each transfer, she was among a growing population of Black women caught in the criminal legal system because of a conspiracy drug conviction due, in part, to being guilty by association or in a relationship with an alleged drug dealer.
The government’s war on drugs fueled a multibillion-dollar incarceration industry as tough-on-crime laws came with harsh federal and state sentences.
Decades later, the images and messaging of cannabis have shifted. To date, 24 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational use, and thousands of businesses and dispensaries selling cannabis products have opened, especially in California. To right the wrongs of mass incarceration’s past, for two years Biden has called on governors to follow his lead of pardoning those with low-level state marijuana convictions. Biden was a co-sponsor of the 1994 crime bill.
“We know that legalization does not turn back the clock on decades of harm that was caused by this war on drugs,” Moore said during a press conference. “It doesn’t erase the fact that having a conviction on your record means a harder time with everything.”
Americans can’t celebrate the benefits of legalization without addressing “the consequences of criminalization,” he added.
The enforcement of cannabis laws have triggered collateral consequences. Once their cases are over, drug and felony offenders are often met with challenges such as job loss, isolation, torn families, poverty, and being stripped of their voting rights. For Shepard, she lost her real estate license before she was convicted of a felony.
The Maryland governor’s office said nearly 50% of the pardons come from parts of the state where most of the over 1.8 million Black Marylanders live: Baltimore City, Baltimore, and Prince George’s counties.
A pardon does not erase records
Shepard agrees with Moore’s point, but challenges him and Biden to “take that extra step that we need to free people” without exclusions.
Biden pardoned over 6,000 federal marijuana convictions that included attempted simple possession of marijuana or use of marijuana, but he left thousands behind in federal prisons by not including possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.
Neither executive order issued by Biden and Moore resulted in anyone being released from federal or state prisons. Biden said in March during the State of the Union that “no one should be jailed for using or possessing marijuana!”
The Last Prisoner Project (LPP) amplified Biden’s call to action through a letter-writing campaign to governors across the country. Moore “boldly answered…setting the example of what state-level leadership looks like,” Jason Ortiz, director of strategic initiatives for the LPP, said at Monday’s press conference.
The cannabis reform nonprofit organization has identified an estimated over 40,000 people currently incarcerated in federal and state prisons for marijuana-related offenses.
Completely sealing an individual’s criminal record is an area where pardons also fall short without further executive action.
“The pardon is just the forgiveness of your crime. It still shows up on your paperwork and it still shows up on your record. It’s a step towards expungement, but it doesn’t take the step far enough,” Shepard, a director of advocacy for LPP who oversees the letter-writing program, said before taking a deep breath and letting out a sigh. She added, “It’s something I could live with.”
Moore’s executive order also directs the state’s Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services to develop a software or process to indicate on criminal background checks which individuals’ convictions have been pardoned. This could take up to 10 months to complete.
Shepard said since pardons are symbolic, presidents and governors may want to consider creatively using their executive powers to release those incarcerated for cannabis-related crimes.
“It is one of those things where,” Shepard said before pausing for a second and letting out a sigh, “I appreciate the step. But it’s just not a step far enough but we’re getting there.”
