Michael Douglas 'Questioning' US Prison System; Hasn't Seen Son in Over One Year
Michael Douglas used his Emmy win to draw attention to the fact that he is upset with the prison system. His son, Cameron, is behind bars on drug-related charges and, until recently, was kept in solitary confinement. After his Emmy speech, ex-wife, and mother of son Cameron, Diandra de Morell Douglas spoke of her disgust with the system.
"My son is in federal prison," the actor said backstage at the Emmy awards. "He's been a drug addict for a large part of his life. Part of the punishments – if you happen to have a slip, and this is for a prisoner who is nonviolent, as about a half-million of our drug-addicted prisoners are – he's spent almost two years in solitary confinement. Right now I've been told that I can't see him for two years. It's been over a year now, and I'm questioning the system."
Cameron was originally sentenced to five years behind bars for distributing drugs, but after several drug infractions inside the prison, a three-judge panel decided to uphold the recommendation to double his sentence to 10 years.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Judges cannot "turn a blind eye to behavior that can reasonably be understood as demonstrating that a particular defendant has shown himself to be a poor candidate for treatment or leniency," Judge Gerald Lynch wrote in the ruling. "It may well be that the nation would be better served by a medical approach to treating and preventing addiction than by a criminal-justice-based 'war on drugs,'" the judge added.
On that, Michael Douglas can agree.
"Obviously at first, I was certainly disappointed in my son," Douglas said. "But I've reach a point now where I'm very disappointed with the system. And as you can see from what Attorney General Eric Holder has been doing regarding our prison system, I think things are going to be revived, regarding nonviolent drug addicts. My last comment on that is the United States represents 5 percent of the world's population and we have 25 percent of the world's prisoners."
Ex-wife Diandra told TMZ that Cameron was suffering from hair loss due to stress and that once he was released from solitary confinement, he couldn't walk in the sunlight because his skin would quickly burn.
Prison officials did not confirm or deny the allegation made by Diandra. Cameron is scheduled to be released in 2018.
