Michael Douglas’s son out of jail
Cameron Douglas free after seven years behind bars, including two in solitary, for drug possession and dealing
Michael Douglas’s eldest son, Cameron, 37, was released from prison Monday after serving seven years for drug dealing.
On April 20, 2010, Douglas was sentenced to five years’ incarceration for heroin possession and dealing in methamphetamine and cocaine. In 2011 he pleaded guilty to possessing drugs while in jail and was sentenced to an additional four and a half years. He spent a total of two years in solitary confinement for having drugs in his system.
His father visited regularly, though while Cameron was in solitary his visiting rights were also revoked.
While in prison, Douglas wrote an impassioned op-ed in the Huffington Post claiming that the prison system was inadequate for dealing with addicts.
“I’m not saying that I didn’t deserve to be punished, or that I’m worthy of special treatment. I made mistakes and I’ll gladly and openly admit my faults. However, I seem to be trapped in a vicious cycle of relapse and repeat, as most addicts are. Unfortunately, whereas the effective remedy for relapse should be treatment, the penal system’s “answer” is to lock the door and throw away the key,” he wrote.
Michael Douglas took responsibility for his son’s behavior, admitting to have been a bad father. Subsequently he became an advocate for reforming the prison system. In his acceptance speech after winning an Emmy in 2013 for Liberace, Douglas said, “And a shout-out to my oldest son Cameron, but hopefully I’ll be able, that they’ll allow me, to see him soon.”
“[Cameron] has a slip [a drug relapse], a result of a his slip the judge gave him the longest sentence in the history of the American penal system,” Douglas told Extra in an interview afterwards. “He’s been in solitary for almost two years, and as a parent I’ve been told you cannot visit him for two years… I’ve gone from a point of being very disappointed with him, to being quite angry with our prison systems… hopefully there’ll be some changes,” Douglas said.
Cameron was released to a New York halfway house. He is the son of Michael and his first wife Diandra, who divorced in 2000. He is also the grandson of Kirk Douglas. He has appeared in four films; Jackie Chan’s Mr. Nice Guy (1997), It Runs in the Family (2003), National Lampoon’s Adam & Eve (2005) and Loaded (2008).
