On July 8, 2014, the Mississippi Parole Board gave Nathan Sinko notice he would be released from prison in September, but he remains in custody today due to what his attorney describes as an unfair procedural change made by the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
The change also affects 66 other inmates, who were previously notified of their pending release dates, attorney Jim Waide said.
In 2012, Sinko was sentenced to 12 years for manufacturing and possessing methamphetamine. At that time, selling or manufacturing a controlled substance was considered a violent offense in Mississippi, according to a MDOC spokesperson; however, Waide said MDOC had a policy of paroling drug offenders convicted of those charges, despite their label as violent offenders.
Mississippi state law says violent offenders are ineligible for parole, but contrary to that law, MDOC continued sending drug offenders like Sinko before a parole board — right up until last July when MDOC notified Sinko it was revoking his parole.
The practice of releasing these prisoners on parole has continued even after a decision from the State Court of Appeals in 2011 ruled anyone convicted of selling or manufacturing drugs was ineligible for parole, Waide said.
“For three years or so, the Department of Corrections did not follow (the appellate court’s) decision,” Waide said. “By that time (of MDOC’s procedural change), they’d let thousands of people out on parole after (the appellate court’s decision).”
Sinko filed a petition for post-conviction relief protesting the revocation of his parole, but Circuit Judge Lee J. Howard dismissed it in December, 2014.
Now, Sinko is appealing the case.
Waide argues MDOC’s policy change infringes on Sinko’s Fourteenth Amendment rights, which guarantee equal protection under the law, since offenders with the same charges were paroled before the policy change. Waide also points out the policy change is a post ex facto, meaning that a change in law or sentencing cannot apply to offenders sentenced before the change was made.
MDOC argues it is following the law by changing the policy so as to keep Sinko and other drug offenders with the same charges from being paroled.
Waide has asked the Court of Appeals to move Sinko’s appeal forward because the judge’s ruling will affect 66 other prisoners, who also have be been notified of their pending release dates. Waide also argues taxpayers have an interest in making sure these prisoners are paroled, as it costs over $40 per day to keep one inmate in prison.
Further muddying the situation is recent legislation classifying the sale or manufacture of less than 30 grams of a controlled substances as a non-violent offense. Had Sinko been convicted after the passage of the new legislation, he would be considered a non-violent offender and legally eligible for parole.
The legislation was passed following Gov. Phil Bryant’s creation of a Criminal Justice Task Force which recommended ways to reform the state’s prison system and cut costs for the state and taxpayers.
A similar case to Sinko’s came before the circuit court in Lauderdale County in June in which a woman convicted of selling cocaine whose parole eligibility was removed with the policy change. The court ruled the new legislation overrules the appellate court decision and that the petitioner was not ineligible for parole simply because of the date of her sentencing.
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