Long Beach native Allan McIntosh has been incarcerated at San Quentin prison since 1998. But thanks to changes made by LA County District Attorney George Gascón and the advocacy of Long Beach-based nonprofit Unite The People, he may be returning home soon.
“His grandkids are asking him like ‘Man, can you finally please make it home for Christmas with us?'” said Cesar McDowell, McIntosh’s former cellmate and founder of legal nonprofit Unite The People.
McIntosh was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison under the Three Strikes Law for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
McIntosh had previously been convicted of robbery and attempted robbery, but alleges that the gun was only for self defense because he lived in a “gang-infested” area.
Gascón stopped using three strikes sentencing enhancements in LA County when he took office in December 2020, but people already imprisoned under those enhancements must wait for their cases to be reviewed.
McIntosh is waiting to get a letter from the DA’s office with his resentencing date, but he has no idea when it will come.
“They won’t give you any type of timeline because of how backed up the courts are,” McDowell said.
McIntosh isn’t the only one in limbo waiting to learn their resentencing date. McDowell said nearly all of Unite The People’s cases are moving slowly through the courts.
“They put the new directive out […], but they don’t have enough district attorneys and public defenders to actually keep the courts going,” McDowell said.
According to McDowell, once McIntosh is given a resentencing date and arrives at court, the judge can decide to release him right there and then, or in three to five days.
The Three Strikes Law was passed in California in 1994 after Assembly Bill 971 was signed into law by former Governor Pete Wilson and Prop 184 was passed by voters.
The two laws were virtually identical, and were passed after the deaths of Kimber Reynolds and Polly Klaas by repeat offenders who had been in and out of prison. The law was meant to lower the number of recidivist criminals out on the street.
According to a 2019 report by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), the rate of recidivism (returning to prison) for incarcerated people in the state has averaged 50% in the past two decades.
According to the 2019 CDCR report, evidence-based rehabilitation programs can lower the rate of recidivism by providing inmates with work skills, education, and counseling for drug addiction.
According to his loved ones, since being sent to San Quentin prison, McIntosh has focused on reforming himself.
He joined the prison’s basketball team, the San Quentin Warriors, and was featured with his teammates in the documentary Q-Ball.
According to Daviena Dumont-McIntosh, his wife, he learned how to install flooring while incarcerated, and hopes to use this skill to open his own business.
She also said her husband plans to set up a sports and mentoring program for at-risk youth.
“So that kids know there’s other outlets […] so that they don’t go down or even get involved in the situation that put him there,” Dumont-McIntosh said.
She doesn’t feel it’s fair that McIntosh was sentenced to 25 to life behind bars for a crime in which no one was hurt.
“There’s murderers getting out every day,” she said. “There’s rapists getting out every day—people that are like real threats to society are getting out.”
The Three Strikes Law has been a subject of controversy since it was enacted. In 2003, the law was brought before the U.S. Supreme Court, who ruled that it did not violate federal law or the Eighth Amendment which forbids “cruel and unusual punishments.”
“Whoever has the strongest union makes the law,” McDowell said during a talk to high school students at Intellectual Virtues Academy on Tuesday, Dec. 14.
The Three Strikes Law was strongly supported by the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA), who donated $1 million to Wilson after he announced his support for the law, according to a report by the Georgia State University Law Review.
The CCPOA has also heavily lobbied against bills that could reform the Three Strikes Law.
According to a study by the Justice Policy Institute, Black people are disproportionately impacted by the Three Strikes Law. Although only 6.5% of California’s population is Black, 44.7% of inmates serving out sentences for third strikes are Black.
According to the California Legislative Analyst’s Office, in 2004 there were 7,574 people serving 25 years to life in prison for their third strike, 412 of whom were charged with possession of a weapon like McIntosh.
Although McIntosh missed his own children growing up due to being incarcerated, he hopes to get out soon and meet his grandchildren. He calls them, but they’ve never had a chance to meet in person.
“The grandchildren are always asking, even when he was my cellie, his grandchildren would always be asking. They don’t understand that he’s in a situation that he can’t get out of,” McDowell said. “[…] They always ask him like ‘Hey grandpa, when are you coming home? Grandpa, when can we come see you? Can you come see us right now?'”
