AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange

Commuted

By Nailah Jefferson. A co-presentation of AfroPop and America ReFramed.

In 1993, Danielle Metz, a 26-year-old mother of two young children, was labeled a drug kingpin by the U.S. Government as a part of her husband’s drug ring. Sentenced to a triple life plus 20 years for nonviolent drug offenses, she was sent to Dublin Federal Correctional Institute in California, more than two thousand miles from her family in New Orleans.

In 2016, after having served 23 years in prison, Metz's sentence was commuted by the Obama Administration's Clemency Initiative to address historically unfair sentencing practices during the “War on Drugs” campaign. Now back home, she is stepping into a different reality - starting life again while helping other women avoid a similar fate. COMMUTED traces Metz's journey in confronting the wounds of incarceration that linger long after parole, and to finding purpose, love and unification with her two grown children.