Mandatory Minimum Prison Sentences for Drug Offenders

Introduction

Mandatory minimum prison sentences for drug offenders are the subject of considerable debate among lawmakers, members of the criminal justice system, and the general public in the United States. Imposed as early as the 1950s in some places, mandatory minimum sentences came to the forefront during the mid-1980s, during the height of what was known as the War on Drugs, which sought to combat crime that US lawmakers believed was being fueled by the proliferation of drugs such as crack cocaine. Laws implementing mandatory minimum sentences, beginning with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, assigned minimum federal prison terms to a variety of drug crimes. Although initially designed to eliminate disparities in sentencing, which had previously been at the discretion of individual judges, and ensure equal treatment under the law, mandatory minimum sentences came to be criticized for requiring judges to impose harsh punishments for relatively minor drug crimes. Proponents of mandatory minimum sentences argue that such punishments deter would-be criminals from possessing, selling, or manufacturing drugs and also provide leverage to law enforcement officials, who can use the threat of mandatory sentences to elicit confessions and valuable information leading to the arrest of higher-level criminals. Opponents of mandatory minimum sentences argue that such policies result in unjust punishments, disproportionately target people of color, and place an undue financial burden on the prison system. In the decades following the 1980s, various lawmakers and advocacy groups have attempted to reform mandatory minimum laws on the federal and state levels, seeking to give judges the ability to impose shorter prison sentences when warranted.

Understanding the Discussion

Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986: A law establishing a slate of federal mandatory minimum sentences for drug-related crimes.

Fair Sentencing Act of 2010: A law that reduced the sentencing disparity between different forms of cocaine.

Safety valve: Refers to provisions that allow an individual who meets certain criteria to avoid serving the mandatory minimum sentence for a crime. These criteria include criminal history, role in the crime committed, possession of a firearm, whether the crime was violent or nonviolent, and cooperation with the authorities.

Sentencing Reform Act of 1984: A law establishing the United States Sentencing Commission, the body charged with writing the guidelines to which courts must adhere when determining a defendant's sentence.

Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015: A bill introduced to Congress in October 2015 that would reduce certain mandatory minimum sentences.

History

Mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes were only infrequently enacted for the bulk of the twentieth century, both in terms of scope and of the drugs targeted. The Boggs Act of 1951, for instance, focused particularly on the possession and sale of marijuana, which, at the time, was the focus of great concern by lawmakers who believed it served as a gateway to harder drugs. That law created uniform penalties for drug possession and sale, including instituting a minimum two-year sentence for first-time possession. Concerns about the appropriateness and effectiveness of mandatory minimum sentences eventually arose, and in 1970, the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act repealed the majority of such minimums on the federal level.

The 1980s, however, brought a shift in policymakers' viewpoints regarding mandatory minimum sentences. Advocates for change said that leaving sentencing for federal criminal cases to judges' discretion left the door open for large disparities in sentences for similar cases, based on judges' individual views and biases. To eliminate such disparities and ensure fairness in all federal cases, the US Congress developed the Sentencing Reform Act, a component of the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984. The act, signed into law by President Ronald Reagan, established an organization known as the United States Sentencing Commission, which was tasked with creating guidelines for sentencing that would apply to all federal courts.

The movement toward establishing mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes was further fueled by the rise in cocaine use during the mid-1980s. Of particular concern was the increasing prevalence of crack cocaine, which some policymakers believed was one of the primary causes of crime during that period. To address what was widely perceived as an epidemic of drug use, Congress in 1986 enacted the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which set mandatory minimum sentences for a variety of drug-related offenses. Mandatory minimum sentences were likewise adopted by many states. On the federal level, judges could sentence individuals to terms shorter than the mandatory minimums in only two scenarios: first, if the government filed a motion for a lesser sentence in exchange for the individual's "substantive assistance" (or informing on others involved in drug crimes), and second, if the judge sought to give a lesser sentence to an individual who met certain criteria. The latter exception was widely referred to as a "safety valve."

The federal mandatory minimum sentences set in place by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 and modified somewhat over the years varied based on a number of factors, including the type of crime, such as manufacturing or trafficking, and the amount and type of drug involved. They also took into account whether the offense was the person's first and whether death or serious injury occurred as a result of the offense. An individual charged with distributing 100 kilograms (about 220.5 pounds) of marijuana, for instance, would face a minimum prison term of five years if the offense was his or her first and resulted in no death or serious injury. In the case of a subsequent offense, the minimum term would be ten years, while a second or subsequent offense that also resulted in a death or serious injury mandated a minimum sentence of life in prison. In light of the widespread concerns about crack at the time of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act's passage, the mandatory minimum sentences it implemented are particularly severe where that drug was concerned. To receive a minimum sentence of five years, a first-time offender would need to manufacture, distribute, or possess with intent to distribute only 5 grams (less than one-fifth of 1 ounce) of crack, while the same penalty applied to 500 grams (approximately 1.1 pounds) of cocaine in powder form. As crack was primarily associated with low-income, urban, African American users, this sentencing disparity was viewed by some as racially biased and faced significant opposition from activist groups over the subsequent decades.

Mandatory Minimum Prison Sentences for Drug Offenders Today

By the 2010s, skepticism regarding the effectiveness of mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders was widespread among lawmakers, policy advisers, civil rights organizations, and the public. In addition to questions about whether such minimums truly deter crime and promote fairness in sentencing, concerns arose about the rapidly increasing US prison population as well as the cost of housing hundreds of thousands of drug offenders in federal and state prisons and other detention centers. A number of organizations likewise called attention to issues of racial and economic disparities at play in the criminal justice system. In response to such concerns, lawmakers undertook a number of efforts to reduce or eliminate mandatory minimum sentences on both the state and the federal levels. One-third of the states repealed or lessened the severity of their mandatory minimum sentencing laws between 2011 and 2016, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. For instance, the state of Massachusetts in 2012 reduced the length of some minimum sentences and increased the quantities of drugs needed to be involved. Many states abolished the use of mandatory minimum sentences for first convictions and implemented programs focusing on job training or drug treatment rather than imprisonment.

On the federal level, the US government took a variety of measures to address concerns about the minimum sentences in place. The Fair Sentencing Act, signed into law in 2010 by President Barack Obama, addressed the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine, increasing the amount of crack, manufactured or distributed, that would trigger a five-year sentence from five grams to twenty-eight grams (about one ounce). The law also eliminated the five-year minimum sentence that had previously applied to first-time possession of any amount of crack.

Over the following years, lawmakers made several further attempts to reduce the severity of many mandatory minimum sentences and provide more opportunities for judges to exercise their discretion when sentencing first-time and low-level offenders. The proposed Justice Safety Valve Act of 2013 sought to allow judges to give lesser sentences if they believed the mandatory minimum would violate sentencing guidelines that take into account the particulars of a case and the defendant involved. Similarly, the Smarter Sentencing Act, introduced in the House of Representatives in October 2013, sought to permit judges to give lesser sentences to individuals with limited criminal histories, to make the Fair Sentencing Act retroactive, and to reduce mandatory minimum sentences overall. Both bills were bipartisan efforts that brought together both Democratic and Republican politicians; however, neither became law. In October of 2015, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers introduced the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act to Congress. This bill bore numerous similarities to previous efforts, seeking to reduce certain mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes while also increasing minimum penalties for a variety of violent, non-drug-related offenses. It was later reintroduced in 2017 but did not make it beyond the committee stage.

According to the Department of Justice, Obama received 3,395 petitions for pardon and 33,149 petitions for commutation between 2009 and 2017. By the end of his term in office, Obama had commuted the sentences of 1,715 prisoners, the majority of whom were incarcerated for nonviolent drug crimes and about a quarter of whom had been given life sentences. The bulk of the commutations were announced in the last several weeks of Obama's terms and were criticized by his successor, Donald Trump, who had adopted a tough-on-crime stance. By contrast, Trump received 1,233 petitions for pardon and 6,722 petitions for commutation from fiscal year 2017 through the first half of 2020; during that period he granted only thirty-five requests.

In May 2017 Jeff Sessions, then attorney-general for the Trump administration, advocated the harshest possible sentences be pursued for drug-related offences and increased prosecution of low-level offenders. His tough-on-crime stance toward drug crimes was not only a reversal of Justice Department guidance from 2013 and 2014, but also contrasted a common view among congressional and state legislators and even judges that drug use was a public health problem, amid an ongoing opioid addiction epidemic.

In December 2018 Congress enacted the First Step Act, which, among other reforms, reduced the mandatory minimum sentence for serious drug felonies to fifteen years from twenty and the three-strike mandatory penalty to twenty-five years, down from life. The bill made those with limited criminal records as well as nonviolent offenders with no prior record eligible for the "safety valve" provision that permits discretion in sentencing; the government estimated that two thousand people would be affected by that expansion. Those sentencing rules apply only to future cases, not past ones, as a concession to law enforcement organizations. However, the law also made the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 retroactive, meaning about three thousand crack-cocaine sentences issued prior to August 2010 could be revised.

Some proponents of criminal justice reform have called for mandatory minimum sentences for drug convictions to be abolished. During the 2020 presidential election cycle, twelve of the twenty-seven contenders for the Democratic nomination favored the elimination of mandatory minimum sentences for federal drug offenses. The American Bar Association also supported the repeal of mandatory minimum sentencing rules.

About the Author

Joy Crelin is a freelance writer and editor. She holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in writing, literature, and publishing from Emerson College.

These essays and any opinions, information, or representations contained therein are the creation of the particular author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of EBSCO Information Services.

Bibliography

Books and Reports

Federal Mandatory Minimums. Washington: Families Against Mandatory Minimums, 2013. PDF file.

Gill, Molly M. Correcting Course: Lessons from the 1970 Repeal of Mandatory Minimums. Washington: Families Against Mandatory Minimums, 2013. PDF file.

Recent State-Level Reforms to Mandatory Minimum Laws. Washington: Families Against Mandatory Minimums, 30 June 2013. PDF file.

Periodicals

Horwitz, Sari. "Obama to Grant Hundreds More Drug Commutations." The Washington Post, 17 Jan. 2017. Points of View Reference Center, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pwh&AN=wapo.c99b4ba6-da5e-11e6-b8b2-cb5164beba6b&site=pov-live. Accessed 26 Apr. 2017.

Smith, Sarah. "Obama Picks Up the Pace on Commutations, but Pardon Changes Still in Limbo." Pro Publica, Jan. 2017, p. 1. Points of View Reference Center, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pwh&AN=121520315&site=pov-live. Accessed 26 Apr. 2017.

Sullivan, Eileen. “Shorter Sentences, More Judicial Leeway: What the Criminal Justice Bill Would Do.” The New York Times, 15 Nov. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/us/politics/sentencing-prison-bill.html. Accessed 23 Mar. 2020. ‌

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Grawert, Ames, and Tim Lau. “How the FIRST STEP Act Became Law — and What Happens Next.” Brennan Center for Justice, 4 Jan. 2019, www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/how-first-step-act-became-law-and-what-happens-next. Accessed 23 Mar. 2020. ‌

Office of the Pardon Attorney. "Clemency Statistics." The United States Department of Justice, 6 Mar. 202020, www.justice.gov/pardon/clemency-statistics. Accessed 19 Mar. 2020.

"Sentencing Reform and Mandatory Minimums." CivilRights.org. Leadership Conf. on Civil and Human Rights and Leadership Conf. Education Fund, 2015. Web. 7 Mar. 2016.

Sterling, Eric E. "Drug Laws and Snitching: A Primer." Frontline. WGBH, n.d. Web. 7 Mar. 2016.