Mandatory Minimum Drug Sentences Essay Research Paper

Mandatory Minimum Drug Sentences Essay, Research Paper

Mandatory minimum drug sentences should be eliminated. First and foremost the mandatory minimum punishment that is given does not fit the crime. Second of all, Judges can not sentence below a mandatory minimum unless the defendant provides .substantial assistance.. The final reason that they should be eliminated is because they have a more of an impact on minorities. These are only a few of the reasons why mandatory minimum drug sentences should be taken away. The policy has become a debated topic, with its implications reaching beyond those that affect just the drug dealers and users.

Mandatory minimum laws have been among the more popular crime-fighting measures of recent years. Such laws require that a judge impose a sentence of at least a specified length if certain criteria are met. For example, a person convicted by a federal court of possessing 1 gram of LSD must be sentenced to at least 5 years in prison no exception. The problem with LSD specifically is that it comes in many forms. For instance, if a person is holding 1 hit of liquid LSD that is placed on a strawberry can get up to 10 years in jail whereas another person with 100 hits of acid in paper form may not even get a mandatory sentence if it weighs under a gram. The whole point behind the legislation comes in response to the American public.s desire to crack down on those sell drugs. Fifty-five percent (55%) of all federal drug defendants are low-level offenders, such as mules or street dealers. Only 11% ate classified as high-level dealers (U.S. Sentencing Commission). In 15 states you can get life in prison for a Marijuana offence and 17% of all federal inmates are convicted marijuana offenders. Since mandatory sentences do not allow parole, federal prisoners convicted for a non-violent marijuana charge often serve more than convicted murders sentenced under state law (FRONTLINE). Mandatory sentences must be imposed regardless of the person.s role in the crime, or other migrating factors. The average sentence for a first-time, federal drug offender serves more time then someone charged with: firearms, sexual abuse, manslaughter, assault, burglary/B&E, and auto theft (Caulkins 29)

A judge in a case involving a charge that carries a mandatory minimum sentence cannot impose a sentence below that minimum, with one exception, and only if requested by the Justice Department. The only exception for a mandatory minimum sentence exists when the government says that a drug offender has given .substantial assistance. to the government the prosecution of another drug offender. One of the common ways that the Justice Department gets testimony in drug cases is to offer to other drug offenders the possibility of more lenient sentence if they testify against another drug offender. Over the last 5 years nearly 1/3 of the people sentenced in drug trafficking cases in the federal system had their sentence reduced under the substantial assistance program because they informed on other people (U.S. Sentencing Commission Annual Report 1997). Judge Sweet is opposed to mandatory minimum sentences and the federal sentencing guidelines and in the past he declared the sentencing guidelines unconstitutional. In a recent interview he stated:

.Well, since 1989 I’ve taken the position that I don’t think criminal penalties are the way to deal with the drug problem. It is a policy that has not worked. I don’t think it’s going to work in the future. It creates a great deal of distress and further, it really is dishonest because I think the American people perhaps are of the view that these punitive measures are effective, where in fact, they are not. The idea of using the criminal law to deal with something which is basically a health problem, basically an education problem, I think that that’s a bad mistake in public policy. But then when you heighten that with the draconian penalties, which we’ve had since 1984 and seem to be increasing, that just makes the situation worse. In fact, it was in 1988 that I had a mandatory minimum sentence that I had to impose on a young Puerto Rican fellow, a first time offender. He had no deep involvement, yet … the situation was such that it had to be a mandatory minimum of 10 years, and it was that sentence which made me think to myself, is this policy working. Is this right. And so I started doing some research and did some thinking about it on my own and one thing and another, and came to the conclusion that the criminal prohibition was wrong. But it was the drama of that 10-year sentence on that 17-year-old that really forced me to focus on the problem and drove me to the conclusion that I just don’t think the policy works..

Later in the interview Judge Sweet goes on to talk about .substantial assistance..

.Through these mandatory minimums [Congress has shifted] a certain amount of the decision making from the courts to the prosecutors. The minute that it shifted to the prosecutors, then the chief malefactor who does have some information to give up, that person can make a deal with the government and escape the mandatory minimum, while the messenger or the conveyor of information or the person that’s just carrying the package–of course they have to know what the package is, but relatively minor role–those are the people that are getting the mandatory minimums because they have no way to cooperate. They