In the current state of national emergency, there is a serious issue we are shedding a light on. Currently in prisons across the country, there are minimum security, non-violent, first-time offenders serving time for cannabis crimes. In addition to at-risk individuals, like the elderly and the immunocompromised, these prisoners are now facing potential death sentences because of the novel coronavirus.
It is impossible to practice safe social distancing, and they don’t have sanitizer, soap, or masks. People are in rooms that house 12, so it is impossible to be in groups of less than 10. They cannot isolate, or quarantine. Instead, they are forced to work in situations where they are not only exposed to the threat of the virus, but can expose others, like guards and staff, and even civilians.
Skylar Walker of Pharm Aide Pharms in Hugo, Okla., is one such prisoner. Currently, he is housed at the Federal Prison Camp in Florida. The camp is located on Saufley Field, an outlying field of Naval Air Station Pensacola.
He cuts grass on the base and comes into direct contact with the families of the sailors and seamen stationed there. Walker sleeps in a room with 12 other men. They’re only allowed to shower once a week. They have no soap. While they are under “quarantine,” and all visitation is suspended, prisoners are still required to work for $0.13 a day.
Walker was sentenced to five years in prison and $150,000 fine for trafficking cannabis that was legally grown in California to Texas. His farm in Colorado, where the product he was arrested with did not come from, was raided. Over $1 million dollars worth of legally grown, recreational marijuana was confiscated by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
Now he is in Florida and his life is in danger because of the virus. He’s a non-violent, first-time offender with a family, a job and a house. He has somewhere to go, and should be allowed to start paying his fine. Many other prisoners are in this same situation.
We are hoping to help prevent a prison pandemic and to free Skylar Walker and we need help.
Attorney General William Barr issued a memorandum to the Bureau of Prisons recommending the release of prisoners who are eligible for home confinement during the pandemic. Some county and state prisons have begun to release prisoners, while other prisons with private contracts have not.
Edibles Magazine interview with Wade Walker, Skylar’s father, is available to watch online. A portion of every Pharm Aide Pharms pre-roll sold in Oklahoma for the rest of the year will go to #Cut50 by The Dream Corps and to the Justice Project.
*This content was provided by Edibles Magazine
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