Amarillo Man Gets 8 Years In Prison For Drug Possession Because His Background Led To An Increased Sentence [POLL]

I already think the criminal justice system is all mixed up.  Murderers, rapist, sexual predators, they all seem to get such lite sentences for such heinous of crimes!  While people caught with drugs are all getting much greater punishment!  Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating people selling drugs to our children or trafficking drugs through our city, but it just seems like a guy caught with some marijuana isn't quite as severe as say a guy caught having sexual relations with a 12 year old.  Yet an Amarillo man just got slapped with 8 years behind bars for drug possession; possession of a controlled substance under 1 gram!  UNDER 1 gram!  This is the kind of sentence that somebody caught with a half a pound of this stuff would get!

The particular amount would typically be a felony that would land a person in state jail, not state prison, there is a difference.  State jail is meant for people with "low level" or "non violent" crimes.  Like theft and first time offenders of maybe drug possession.  A state jail sentence would be predetermined amount ranging from months to years.  When the set time is up, the prisoner is released.  Now when it comes to TDCJ, a person is sentenced to a certain amount of time, but is up for parole or even pardon after a certain percentage of the sentence is completed, it is left up to a board to decide what happens at that point.  They either stay, or go home, or to a "half-way" house, a home meant to rehabilitate prisoners as they transition back into society.

But why the long prison sentence for this Amarillo man?

Amarillo Globe News reports in the incident:

Wright had previous convictions for kidnapping, burglary, possession of a controlled substance and tampering with evidence after he attempted to swallow drugs in another offense, Sims said.

Now, having learned all that information that Globe News provided, does it seem unfair that his sentencing was looked at in a different light due to his criminal history?

I was talking to a listener about this earlier, and they said that it is definitely justified!  Having that extensive of a criminal background, which includes kidnapping, this was definitely appropriate in their opinion.

I kind of agree, and I actually thought there was some kind of "3 strikes" system in place?  But maybe I was wrong about that?  Not to sure about that..

But what do you think?