Erik Thompson - Maryland

State: Maryland
Sentence: 25 years
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute crack
Priors: Possession w/ intent to deliver controlled substance (1986, 1989)
Year sentenced: 1998
Age at sentencing: 31
Projected release date: Nov. 2013 

Erik grew up in a housing project in east Baltimore that was later razed due to its substandard living conditions.  As a single parent, Erik’s mother relied on public assistance to raise Erik and his three siblings.  Erik gravitated to the street hustler lifestyle during his youth and began selling small quantities of drugs.  He paid for it with a substance addiction and his first jail sentence in 1989. 
 
After Erik was released from prison in 1990, he was determined to make a new start. He stayed sober, reconnected with his father through working in his hardware store, and married his wife Tara and became the proud father to a daughter.  Unfortunately, Erik fell into credit card debt trying to fix his family’s new home some years later. The subsequent stress caused him to relapse. While using drugs, Erik met an old acquaintance who was now a drug dealer in the Baltimore area. Over the course of three months, Erik occasionally sold drugs for the dealer to sustain his own growing addiction.
 
Unbeknownst to Erik, the dealer was the target of a Drug Enforcement Agency investigation. In October 1997, a confidential informant (CI) arranged to buy 4.5 ounces of crack cocaine from the dealer.  Erik was enlisted to help and met the CI outside a Wendy’s restaurant while drug enforcement agents conducted surveillance.  Erik gave the CI a key to a room at a nearby motel where the crack was located. Agents arrested Erik.

Under Maryland law, Erik’s offense warranted a sentence of 20 years. Erik went to trial, resulting in a hung jury.  He was found guilty in his second trial and was sentenced to a 25-year mandatory minimum term because of his two prior convictions. According to Erik, the government dropped their charges against the drug dealer.  He is currently a free man. 
 
Erik’s young daughter lives with her mother in Baltimore.  Tara struggles to pay the bills without Erik and can only afford to visit him two or three times a year.  Despite the difficulties he and his family face, Erik has worked hard during his incarceration.  He has earned his GED and completed classes in adult literary, life skills, and alternatives to violence. Erik is a state-certified literacy tutor and facilitated a groundbreaking youth challenge program at the Maryland Correctional Training Center in Hagerstown.  He was also awarded a certificate of appreciation for his work as a teacher’s aide in prison.   Unfortunately, Erik did not have access to drug treatment for quite some time due to a three-year waiting list for Narcotics Anonymous classes.