Crystal Douglas
Crystal Douglas' nonviolent crime did not involve her selling or making drugs. Rather, as is detailed in the documents supporting her guilty plea and her Presentence Investigation Report (PSR), Crystal shared a home with her common law husband of more than a decade—and the father of her three young boys. When Crystal entered prison, her boys were 10, 7, and 2.
Her husband was convicted of a drug conspiracy. As part of that drug conspiracy, he manufactured and sold GHB. To that end, as is detailed in her PSR, occasionally Crystal and her children would be told to leave their home for the day and during that time the husband would manufacture the drug GHB. The husband bought her and the kids season tickets to Six Flags, so they would spend those days away from the home.
So because Crystal shared a home where she raised her children, with her husband and because he occasionally used their home to manufacture GHB, Crystal was convicted of Maintaining a Drug Premises, resulting in a federal prison term of nearly a decade—almost a decade in prison for living with her husband who occasionally used the home to manufacture GHB while she and her three young children were out of the house, even though she had no hand in the making or selling of drugs.
So, no, Crystal's crime did not involve her participating in the distribution or manufacturing of drugs, but under that criminal statute she doesn't have to. See her Factual Resume. It is enough that she shared a home with her husband and knew what he was doing. Additionally, as is stated in her Factual Resume (the document underlying her guilty plea), aside from Crystal sharing a home with her husband, Crystal's role was her husband from time to time provided her with small user amounts of drugs, to feed her addiction.
Crystal had to leave three young children, who will grow up without their mother or father, for nearly a decade. As was mentioned previously, at the time of her arrest, the children were ages 10, 7, and 2. Tragically, if Crystal must serve her entire sentence, the kids will be almost 18, 15, and 10 when she returns. Those are formative years that she will miss, and nothing good can come from such a situation.
Crystal did make bad decisions, but her decisions were rooted in her drug addiction. She was not a drug dealer. Crystal has been plagued by addiction throughout her life. But to strip a mother from her three young children, thrust them on the grandmother, and imprison the mother for nearly a decade (there is no parole in the federal system) because of the husband’s drug making and dealing activities, serves no legitimate purpose. Someone like her needs help, not nearly a decade behind bars.
The truth is, the husband refused to cooperate with the federal government, and so Crystal was collateral damage.
This is a common ploy—the federal government presses the husband to provide information about others or to testify against others; he refuses; and so, the government threatens to destroy his, his wife's and their children's lives; and they make good on that promise. The charge of Maintaining a Drug Premises is the perfect vehicle because it casts a wide net and allows the government to imprison the wife of a drug dealer.
As was touched on above, Crystal's children are young. Her husband (their father) was given 20 years in federal prison; she was given nearly a decade. Thus, the three young boys were suddenly thrown on the single grandmother, who is straining to care for them and who had to apply for government assistance just to provide them with necessities. At one point, the boys were separated, as the grandmother simply couldn't handle three young boys. (One of the boys had to live with a relative in Atlanta.)
To state the obvious, three young boys is a lot to handle for a single grandmother who spends her days working, trying to scrape up enough money as a drug counselor to care for the children.
But children need more than food on the table and a roof over their heads. They need a mother's love.
Plainly, this is a case about a wife who was addicted to drugs and who was involved with the wrong man. Crystal at a young age clung to alcohol and drugs for comfort, leading her down a bad path, which culminated with this nine-year federal prison sentence.
Crystal has been in prison for nearly 3 years. During that time, she has completed about 30 different programs/classes. She is in an office management apprenticeship at her Trust Fund job. She's also taking correspondence courses, which she ordered through Stratford College. She wants to be a Drug and Alcohol Specialist, like her mother. Additionally, Crystal started her own NA/AA group, which she runs. Additionally, she has maintained a spotless prison disciplinary record—she is a model inmate.
She has made the necessary changes to live a clean life centered on raising her children and being a productive member of society; that is, she has invested her time in prison, and it has yielded remarkable results. But there is a point where the time spent in prison stops being productive and becomes purely punitive and counterproductive.
Given the circumstances unique to Crystal, keeping her in prison serves no legitimate purpose and only places undo strain on the grandmother and her three young children.
Her children are desperate for their mother and are torn to pieces each time they must leave the visiting room. Because of COVID, which has run rampant in prisons, visits have been cancelled or highly restricted to no-contact, one-hour visits, with masks. This appears to be the new normal. In fact, for extended periods, Crystal doesn't even have access to the prison email system to communicate with others given the continual COVID lockdowns.
No, Crystal is not serving decades in prison, nor has she been in prison for decades. But she lived with her husband and father of her children who tossed her some small user amounts from time to time and who occasionally used the house to manufacture GHB while Crystal and the kids spent the day at Six Flags. Her sentence is overboard. There are rapists and big time drug dealers who serve less time, as there is parole in the state system.