A drug dealer with a white supremacist gang arrested over a decade ago is one of around 1,500 people to be granted clemency by President Joe Biden this week.
Jaclyn Hooker has lived much of her life in pictures over the past decade.
“This is the first time my mom came to visit me. I hadn’t seen her in two years,” she recalls while flipping through photos.
these pictures, taken in front of decorative backdrops and alongside fellow inmates, reflect an effort to make the best of her time behind bars.
When asked what went through her mind when she was handcuffed in 2014, Hooker responded, “I was mad. Really mad. I was mad I let it get that far. I thought my life was over.”
Known as “Queen Bee,” the convicted drug dealer had been responsible for supplying methamphetamine in 2014 as part of the Aryan Circle, a white supremacist gang based primarily in Texas, investigative records show.
Investigators defined the Aryan Circle as follows:
“The Aryan Circle prison gang formed when certain (Aryan Brotherhood of Texas) members splintered off to form what they believed was a more ideologically pure group. Aryan Circle members believe in the complete separation of the races. The Aryan Circle is also an organized crime group, but, like the ABT, in recent years, its white supremacist ideology often takes a backseat to traditional criminal ventures, such as drug-dealing.”
2014 Complaint, "United States of America v. Jaclyn Hooker"
At the time, Hooker and over 30 other suspects were arrested and accused of having roles in a drug ring involving various white supremacist groups, investigators announced.
“The defendants used stash houses and other locations to store quantities of methamphetamine,” investigators said. “Each of the co-conspirators was linked to one another either directly or through another co-conspirator. Certain co-conspirators acted as hubs for narcotics trafficking, supplying methamphetamine to numerous other co-conspirators.”
Later that year, Hooker pleaded guilty to possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute. She was ultimately sentenced to over 13 years in prison at the Coleman Corrections Complex in Florida, court records state.
However, an emergency motion filed in 2020 reveals that Hooker asked for “compassionate release” under the First Step Act, arguing she had several medical conditions that would make her particularly vulnerable to COVID-19.
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These conditions included asthma, legionnaire’s disease, chronic bladder and urinary tract infections with E. coli bacteria, hypothyroidism, hypertension, hydro nephrosis of the left kidney, morbid obesity, and irregular heartbeat.
“Coleman Camp is part of the Coleman Correctional Complex, which comprises four other prisons at which there are active COVID-19 cases,” the motion reads. “The staff routinely works throughout the facilities as staffing is needed, which poses a potential to contract and spread the virus. The (Bureau of Prisons) cannot house (Hooker) in a safe environment according to CDC guidelines.”
Court records show that Hooker was eventually granted release for home confinement at her house in Longwood.
But on Thursday, Biden commuted Hooker’s sentence, along with around 1,500 other people who were placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic. These commutations are for those who have served out home confinement sentences for at least one year after they were released.
Dr. Shaneva McReynolds, with Families Against Mandatory Minimums, explains that home confinement is no easy path.
“It’s not a ‘get out of jail free’ card. Home confinement is still classified as incarceration. The difference is that you’re at home with your family, but there are still strict guidelines and regulations to follow,” McReynolds said.
Biden said he would be taking more steps in the weeks ahead and would continue to review clemency petitions. The second largest single-day act of clemency was by Barack Obama, with 330, shortly before leaving office in 2017.
“America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances,” Biden said in a statement. “As president, I have the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for non-violent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses.”
The clemency follows a broad pardon for his son Hunter, who was prosecuted for gun and tax crimes. Biden is under pressure from advocacy groups to pardon broad swaths of people, including those on federal death row, before the Trump administration takes over in January. He’s also weighing whether to issue preemptive pardons to those who investigated Trump’s effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and are facing possible retribution when he takes office.
Clemency is the term for the power the president has to pardon, in which a person is relieved of guilt and punishment, or to commute a sentence, which reduces or eliminates the punishment but doesn’t exonerate the wrongdoing. It’s customary for a president to grant mercy at the end of his term, using the power of the office to wipe away records or end prison terms.
Those pardoned Thursday range in age from 36 to 75. About half are men and half are women, and they had been convicted of nonviolent crimes such as drug offenses, fraud or theft and turned their lives around, White House lawyers said. They include a woman who led emergency response teams during natural disasters; a church deacon who has worked as an addiction counselor and youth counselor; a doctoral student in molecular biosciences; and a decorated military veteran.
Instead of collecting pictures, Hooker can celebrate the holidays, volunteer with her church, and create memories without restrictions.
“If somebody wants to change, they will. Don’t lump us all together and throw us out with the trash. We have the capacity to be amazing people.”
Hooker, along with the others granted clemency, will officially be released on December 22. She notes that even if President Biden hadn’t granted clemency, her sentence would have ended in July.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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