Kirk Franklin Mourns His Sister’s 30 Year Prison Sentence

Source: Erika Goldring / Getty

Gospel artist Kirk Franklin is facing difficult times this week when he announced that his sister was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

He revealed the news in an Instagram post saying “I now feel the weight of wondering if I could’ve done more…”

It’s not clear what caused his sister’s long sentence.

However, Kirk has been pretty public about the struggles she’s faced, including an addiction to crack-cocaine. In a 2015 interview, Kirk said, “For over ten years, my younger sister was incarcerated in a facility here in Texas. She was in love with a young man who was drug dealer. He introduced her to not only selling drugs, but using as well. When he was arrested for drug trafficking, she was arrested along with him. After she served her time, she was brought before the review board who determined she was ready to be released and brought back into society. The documents were signed and she was set free… but only on paper.”

Kirk continued, “After a few months back into the free world, it became obvious to me rather quickly that my sister was still in prison. It’s what they call being institutionalized. She quickly started using again, becoming very reckless with her body, which turned into her using it as a means to pay for her habit.”

With more talk about prison reform and harsh sentencing, questions do arise on if Kirk’s sister deserved her 30 year sentence in the first place. Is it because of distributing drugs? Using? If she’s been committed to an institution before, shouldn’t her intervention be in the form of rehabilitation instead of prison?

Kirk has yet to go into details about his next steps following the intense news, but we’ll continue to keep you updated if anything major should surface.

The Latest: