Inmate: MDOC reverses drug parole policy

A state prisoner who pleaded guilty to drug charges is arguing he was eligible for parole and the Mississippi Parole Board had decided to release him, but a change in Mississippi Department of Corrections policy says he can’t be paroled.

The Mississippi Court of Appeals heard arguments last week in Nathan Sinko’s appeal. Several hundred — or even thousands of — other inmates could be impacted.

Sinko’s attorney, Jim Waide of Tupelo, argued the case arises from a change in the parole policies of MDOC, made four years after Sinko’s crime and approximately three years after his guilty plea and sentence.

“The change in parole policies resulted in Sinko’s not being released on parole, despite the fact that MDOC had repeatedly told him he was eligible and the Parole Board had decided to release him,” Waide said.

MDOC spokeswoman Grace Fisher said the department's position is that the violent offenders, like Sinko, sentenced on or after July 1, 1995, but before July 1, 2014, are not eligible for parole.

“In light of two appellant cases showing that MDOC had misinterpreted the parole statutes, an audit was done to remove dates for violent offenders convicted of sale or manufacture of a controlled substance (violent offenders such as Sinko),” Fisher said. “Sinko challenged what we did”

Fisher said Sinko, who pleaded guilty, had more than a 170 grams of meth and could have been sentenced to life without parole, according to evidence presented during the hearing.

In May 2012, Sinko pleaded guilty in Oktibbeha County Circuit Court to one count of manufacture of a controlled substance and one count of possession of a controlled substance.

Sinko entered an open plea, meaning without a plea agreement.

He said the judge never told him he was ineligible for parole and that was understandable since at that time MDOC maintained a policy that persons convicted of manufacture or sale of controlled substances were parole eligible.

Circuit Judge Lee Howard sentenced Sinko to 12 years in prison.

On Nov. 13, 2014, Sinko filed a post conviction petition, alleging that he had repeatedly been promised parole by MDOC and had actually had a parole date set but that it had been subsequently revoked.

On December 8, 2014, Howard ruled that Sinko, failed to establish a claim that would warrant relief under state law. He refused to grant Sinko a hearing on the petition.

Waide argues that it is undisputed that MDOC parole policy at the time of Sinko’s criminal act and sentence was to grant parole eligibility to those convicted of distribution or manufacture of nethamphetamine.

After the Parole Board issued Sinko the formal document notifying him that he was granted parole, MDOC notified Sinko that he was no longer eligible and that his parole was revoked, explaining there had been a “change in the law in July 2014, Waid in court papers.

When Sinko pointed out that others with the same charges had been released on parole, MDOC admitted it had “misinterpreted the law” and had now established a “cutoff date” under which it would no longer parole prisoners convicted of manufacturing or selling controlled substances between June 30, 1995, and July 1, 2014. By that time, MDOC had paroled thousands of prisoners, who, like Sinko, had been convicted of sale or manufacture of controlled substances between those dates, Waide said.

However, Special Assistant Attorney General Barbara Byrd argued the circuit court correctly found that the issues raised in Sinko’s petition for post-conviction relief were without merit. Byrd also said the court also correctly found that, even if there were merit to Sinko’s claims, it would not be appropriate to resentence him to time served.

Byrd said the 2014 change to the parole statutes did not affect Sinko’s ineligibility for parole.

“Although MDOC initially gave him a parole eligibility date and a “parole action sheet,” Sinko was never actually granted parole, and he was not given a “parole certificate,” Byrd said. “To be clear, Sinko’s parole was not “revoked.” He was not granted parole because he is ineligible for parole.”

Contact Jimmie E. Gates at (601) 961-7212 or jgates@jackson.gannett.com. Follow @jgatesnews on Twitter.