BUFFALO, N.Y. — He is a free man with a voice, and Valentino Dixon is using it to talk about an issue that he says impacts human rights and civil rights. He wants reform in sentencing laws on state and federal levels.
Dixon served 27 years in the New York State prison system for the murder of Torriano Jackson in 1991. The murder charge was overturned, but the gun charge remained.
Dixon, an artist, remains busy drawing, but he is adamant about the need for reform in the criminal justice system.
"We have some of the worst sentencing laws in the world, very harsh, excessive, extreme, and it violates the eighth amendment to the Constitution against cruel and unusual punishment. This is why we have over 2 million people incarcerated because they are not releasing anybody," Dixon said.
According to the Prison Policy Initiative, there are 2.3 million people in prisons across the United States of America.
"This is a numbers thing and once you reduce the numbers then you reduce the prison population you rid yourself of mass incarceration," he said.
Retired New York State Judge Penny Wolfgang agrees that drug sentencing laws have been unfair. However, she said, "nothing is perfect, our sentencing laws could always be improved, but to say they are too harsh or too long of a sentence for a particular crime, I think it's fair to look at the crime."
She added: "If a person is sentenced for a homicide, there is a victim, a person who is never going to be released or walk again on the face of the earth."
There have been advances in criminal reform and sentencing reform. Many drug offenses and non-violent offenses have been changed. The age has been lowered so juveniles are not prosecuted as adults for some crimes.
"As judges, I think we'd like to have discretion because there are cases where the law can be unfair without considering the individual, the crime itself," Wolfgang said.
Added Dixon: "a lot of the sentencing guidelines are harmful to minorities."
"People are human beings and everybody deserves the same care, compassion and concern as the next class, race or nationality," he said.
While it was Dixon's colored pencil drawings of golf courses helped get his story out that led to his release, his mission is sentencing reform.
"There is no other solution, but to reduce the sentencing guidelines. We can talk about re-entry programs, we know treatment inside prison is horrible, not only are you giving people too much time, but then they have to subject themselves to a lot of abuse, mental and physical abuse by the guards inside the prison system. I have seen it firsthand 27 years."
Dixon travels around the world with his artwork and he is also working on video projects.
Lamarr Scott is now serving time for the murder of Torriano Jackson.
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