Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Fact Sheet
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - -
During the 1980’s, Congress and many state legislatures passed
laws that force judges to give long, fixed prison terms to people
convicted of certain drug crimes (including nonviolent offenders).
These mandatory minimum sentencing laws trump judicial discretion,
a hallmark of the U.S. justice system.
- Mandatory
sentencing laws disproportionately affect people of color.
African-Americans make up 15% of the country’s drug users,
yet they make up 37% of those arrested for drug violations, 59%
of those convicted, and 74% of those sentenced to prison
for a drug offense.
- Since the
enactment of mandatory minimum sentencing for drug offenders,
the Federal Bureau of Prisons budget increased by more
than 1,350%. The U.S. is now the world’s
leading incarcerator in both number of prisoners and
in percentage of population incarcerated. Over two million people
are incarcerated in the United States. In fact, 60% of federal
prisoners are drug offenders.
- A 1998
RAND study found that mandatory sentences are the least
cost-effective means of reducing drug use and drug sales.
The average cost of incarcerating an individual for a year is
$22,000.
- In cases
involving mandatory minimum sentences, judges are not allowed
to consider all of the facts of each case. The mandatory sentence
is determined simply by the quantity of drugs possessed. These
laws prevent judges from considering other factors
such as the defendant’s role in the offense, likelihood
of committing a future offense, or the role of drug addiction.
- Mandatory minimum sentencing removes the checks and
balances that make our system of justice work. In the
absence of judicial discretion, control over sentencing shifts
to the prosecutors who decide whether an offender gets charged
in a way to trigger a long sentence. This becomes a bargaining
tool of the prosecutor and essentially cuts judges out of the
system.
- The least culpable offenders often get sentences originally
intended for the most serious drug traffickers because
they have no valuable information to trade for a lower sentence.
Conspiracy laws make those at the top of the drug trade and low-level
offenders equally culpable. According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission,
only 11% of those incarcerated in federal prisons on drug charges
fit the definition of high-level drug traffickers. 30% of all
drug defendants received a ten-year mandatory minimum sentence
in 2001.
Two decades after the enactment of mandatory sentences, these
laws have failed to deter people from using or selling drugs.
Drugs are cheaper, purer and more easily obtainable than ever.
Public
Support
A respected and growing body of individuals and organizations
oppose mandatory sentencing laws. They include: U.S. Supreme
Court Justices William Rehnquist and Anthony Kennedy, former drug
czar Barry McCaffrey, National Association of Veteran Police Officers,
American Psychological Association, National Association of Criminal
Defense Lawyers, Federal Courts Study Committee, American Bar
Association, American Civil Liberties Union, National Black Police
Association, and the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
Many national religious groups also oppose mandatory sentencing
laws. They include: U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops,
National Council of Churches, United Methodist Church, Prison
Fellowship Ministries, Presbyterian Church (USA), Episcopal Church,
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Progressive National Baptist
Convention, National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., National Baptist
Convention of America, Inc., National Missionary Baptist Convention,
Church of the Brethren Witness, United Church of Christ, American
Baptist Churches in the USA, Union for Reform Judaism, Unitarian
Universalist Association, Mennonite Central Committee, American
Friends Service Committee, Church Women United.
Interfaith
Drug
Policy Initiative, P.O.
Box 6299, Washington, D.C. 20015
Phone: 301-933-7681 Fax:301-933-7682 |
|
