By: Reginaldo Valdez
Bill Clinton promoting his Crime Bill at Stone Mountain Correctional Facility, Georgia, 1992.
The world’s first modern democracy with all its freedoms and opportunities to pursue happiness is deteriorating; the American dream is dying. The United States with five percent of the global population spends 80 billion dollars a year to hold 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. Half of all American prisoners have drugs as a serious offense on their record. Most of these drug offenses have been non-violent crimes and come at a significant cost to the tax-payer. The United States spends around 80 billion dollars a year maintaining its prison programs. It is estimated that non-violent drug offenders cost tax-payers 32 billion dollars a year. Federal mandatory minimums force judges to give federal mandatory minimums to drug offenders, even if judges believe the penalty is too strict. Federal minimums do not work as a deterrent. The majority of prisoners who finish their sentence are likely to return to prison with the same drug problem. Federal mandatory minimums are expensive, they restrict judicial discretion, and are ineffective.
Steve Mcalister Via Getty Images
A solution to eliminating federal mandatory minimums is to pass legislation in Congress that would repeal them. In order to ratify our bill, Koch Industries and the White House will have to partner their efforts to obtain votes. At the moment there is momentum on both sides of the aisle. Koch Industries teamed up with the White House to eliminate federal minimums by crafting legislation. This bipartisan bill would eliminate federal minimums in lieu of already existing judicial guidelines that allow judges to examine each case holistically. There have been bills introduced in the House and the Senate by both parties with several bipartisan cosponsors. It is only with the coordinated efforts of the White House and Koch Industries that congress can pass the legislation before a new congress is introduced.
Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President and Mark Holden, Head Counsel of Koch Industries via Koch Industries
The biggest obstacle is perception. Drug users are still viewed as criminals in society. Representatives in the House and the Senate may have fears of losing their primaries because they might be depicted as being weak on crime. A solution to this problem is majority bipartisan support. If a majority of legislators from both parties favored the legislation, then representatives would have a reasonable justification for supporting the bill. Timing is also an issue. The Obama administration is half of our momentum, and it might go away in January if the new President does not support repealing federal mandatory minimums. It is vital to coordinate efforts now to mobilize and pass our bill. In these last months the President will attempt to solidify his legacy and does not have to worry about being re-elected, instead the White House can use its resources to pass this legislation. There are obstacles to be faced in passing our bill through Congress, nevertheless there are ways that these hurdles can be overcome.
President Obama’s visit to El Reno federal prison in Oklahoma via VICE Media
The time to act is now. Every day thousands of Americans are unjustly behind bars for violent crimes and the taxpayer has to pay the bill. As a country that prides itself for protecting and maintaining freedom how is it possible the country turned a blind eye to its own citizens? The Incarcerated States of America will persist as long as we have laws that limit judicial discretion and statutes that impose minimum sentences on non-violent drug use.
Sources:
For more information please visit the Sentencing Project website.
- Sentencing Project. (2010). Deterrence in Criminal Justice: Evaluating Certainty vs. Severity of Punishment. Washington, D.C.: Wright
- Trends in U.S. Corrections. (2015). The Sentencing Project
- Gill, M. (n.d.). Correcting Course: Lessons from the 1970 Repeal of Mandatory Minimums. Families Against Mandatory Minimums.
- Criticizing Sentencing Rules, U.S. Judge Resigns. (1990, September 29). Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/30/us/criticizing-sentencing-rules-us-judge-resigns.html
- Padwa, H., & Cunningham, J. (2010). Narcotic Rehabilitation Act. In Addiction: A Reference Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO.