Michelle Collette (MA)

State: Massachusetts
Sentence: Seven years
Offense: Trafficking in oxycodone
Priors: None
Year of sentencing: 2004
Age at sentencing: 28
Projected release date: 2010*
 
Michelle grew up in Boston in a single-parent household. Her father struggled with addiction and was often in jail. After graduating from high school, Michelle met her boyfriend and they soon became inseparable. When Michelle became pregnant with their daughter in 1998, they purchased their own home and her boyfriend worked long hours to support their family. But money always seemed to be short. Michelle’s boyfriend started selling marijuana for extra income and was soon selling Percocet, as well. Michelle, who had very little experience with drugs, tried the pills and quickly became addicted. Before she knew it, she was “way in over her head” and selling pills to support her escalating habit.
 
In July 2000, narcotics officers began wiretapping the telephone of a local drug dealer.  From July to mid-August, Michelle was recorded speaking with the dealer, a coworker of her boyfriend’s, about using and selling the prescription pain medication Percocet. In the early morning hours of August 16, police arrested Michelle, her boyfriend, and their baby daughter at gunpoint. A search of their house revealed 607 pills and $901 in cash.
 
Michelle was held accountable for 14 to 28 grams of Oxycodone, an amount that triggers a five-year mandatory minimum. She pled guilty and received a seven-year sentence with a mandatory term of five years. Michelle’s boyfriend was found guilty at trial and received a 15 year mandatory minimum sentence. At sentencing, Judge Isaac Borenstein said,
 
“The question is not was this a serious crime. I think the question today is whether it’s a fair sentence for the serious crime... I do what the law requires me to do with not one ounce of pleasure…I don’t think this is fair. I don’t think this is what our laws are meant to do. It’s going to cost upwards of $50,000 a year to have you in state prison. Had I the authority, I would send you to jail for no more than one year…and a program after that.”
 
Michelle has two young children, now ages three and 10. Both Michelle and her boyfriend were out on bond for 3 ½ years until their sentencing in 2004, working and raising their child without further incident. Unfortunately, the stress of sentencing caused them to sever their relationship in 2002. When she was one month into her sentence, Michelle discovered she was pregnant and gave birth to her son while shackled to a hospital bed.
 
Since her incarceration, Michelle has completed numerous classes, including parenting and horticulture, and finished coursework with the Boston College School of Nursing. She also enjoys volunteering her time with the prison Catholic chaplaincy. Michelle says, “I am accepting that I deserve punishment and incarceration. What so many others and I cannot accept is the fact that the sentencing judge is no longer able to judge, no longer able to decide…when it comes to mandatory minimum sentences.”

*Michelle has been released from prison and is back with her family in Massachusetts.