(Video Above: Cliff Sims interviews Cullman County Sheriff Matt Gentry on Yellowhammer Radio)
During an interview on Yellowhammer Radio Wednesday, Cullman County Sheriff Matt Gentry expressed outrage with President Barack Obama’s decision to release a local man from federal prison after he was convicted multiple times on drug and weapons charges.
Earlier this week, President Obama announced he is commuting the sentences of 46 “non-violent” drug offenders whose punishments, he says, do not fit their crimes.
Robert “Bobby” Joe Young of Joppa, Alabama, was one of the convicted criminals who will be released back out onto the streets as a result of the President’s decision. Young was arrested in 2000 for possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine, a substance containing methamphetamine and a substance containing cocaine; trafficking in methamphetamine; and carrying a firearm during a drug trafficking crime, among other charges.
In short, Young was caught with roughly two pounds of meth and an arsenal consisting of dozens of weapons at a time when he was already on probation for a previous drug offense.
Because Young received a commuted sentence, he is still considered guilty of the crime, but will be released from prison in November, 7 years earlier than expected.
“I really disagree with the President’s statement saying these guys are not violent criminals,” said Sheriff Gentry. “Over the last 16 years, I’ve talked to a lot of parents who would disagree when their child is being buried because of this drug. There is violence associated with methamphetamine.”
Gentry said Young stood out among the other individuals whose sentences the President is commuting because he was trafficking in such large amounts of meth.
“This guy was in possession of a couple of pounds of meth, so I don’t really know or see what would stand out to the President on this one individual,” he said. “…If he comes back into society and he goes back to the old habits he had before he was incarcerated… He is a danger to the community.”
Gentry said he is concerned with the message President Obama is sending by letting Young out of jail long before his sentence is complete.
“I don’t think the President sends a very good message to the community and to our children that you can go out and you can deal drugs — you can be a large scale drug trafficker… deal pounds and cause all this havoc in a community, but there’s really no accountability for it,” he said. “I don’t think that sends the right message to our community. What’s going to happen now when I talk to the kid that says, ‘Well heck, I can go do five pounds, ten pounds, twenty pounds, and there’s really nothing that’s going to happen to me’?”
Hear the full interview with Sheriff Gentry, including his thoughts on why he opposes Alabama’s recent prison reform efforts, in the video above.
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— Cliff Sims (@Cliff_Sims) June 9, 2015
