Push for mandatory minimum sentencing reform features Iowa woman

DES MOINES - When Julie Stewart travels the country talking about the need for sentencing reform, she often tells of Mandy Martinson, a Mason City woman serving 15 years in federal prison for drug-related offenses.

'Her personal story is very typical of a lot people, especially a lot of women, who are addicts and hook up with men who have the drugs. And also ... the sentence is so stiff,” said Stewart, of Washington, D.C., president and founder of Families Against Mandatory Minimums.

Martinson was 27 in 2004 when she was arrested and charged with possession with intent to distribute and conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and marijuana, and possession of a firearm during a drug trafficking crime.

Martinson, who never had been arrested before, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison. Her boyfriend, with whom she had been living for only a month, was sentenced to 12 years for the same crimes after he testified against Martinson.

'She needed to be arrested. She needed to be punished,” Stewart said Monday in an interview at the Iowa Capitol. 'Even if you want to punish her, fine. But why 15 years? Why is that the right number? And what damage is going to be done by her being there?”

Stewart will give the Drake University Harkin Institute's spring lecture on prison crowding and incarceration costs. She said Martinson is a prime example of the type of person who shouldn't spend a decade or more behind bars.

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley is shepherding sentencing-reform legislation through the Senate Judiciary Committee he chairs. It's less than what Stewart favors, but it is 'a terrific first step,” she said.

Grassley's bill would reduce a third-time drug offender's mandatory minimum sentence from life to 25 years and second-time offender's from 20 to 15 years, among many other provisions.

'Grassley has been great this year. He has not been an easy person to persuade. I think he's beginning to listen to his constituents,” Stewart said. 'I think he has recognized that there's a problem, and it needs to be addressed.”

The Iowa Legislature has not addressed sentencing reform this year.

Stewart said while more and more lawmakers are embracing sentencing reform, many remain opposed.

'People ... look at these mandatory minimum sentences that are in place and have been on the books for 30 years, and they almost look at them a little bit like they're the Bible,” she said. ' ... There's this fear that if somehow we reduce sentences, it will make the streets less safe. The statistics don't bear that out.”