Michael Douglas certainly had the most colorful speech Sunday night at the Emmy Awards, where the "Behind the Candelabra" actor picked up the statue for Lead Actor in A Miniseries or Movie. But aside from ribbing on Matt Damon, Douglas also turned abruptly emotional when he publicly declared he hoped "they'll allow me to see [oldest son Cameron] soon." (Cameron has been incarcerated in Pennsylvania on drug charges since 2010, and has been in solitary confinement for the past two years).
But that wasn't all. Backstage, Michael continued to slam the U.S. prison system to the media and stated that he was "very disappointed in the system." Here's what he had to say:
“My son is in federal prison. 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.”
“Obviously at first, I was certainly disappointed in my son. But I’ve reached 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.”
Cameron, who is scheduled to be released in 2018, has also been vocal about his criticism of the prison system. In June, he penned a drug policy essay from jail for The Huffington Post; read it here.
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