Democrat introduces bill to end mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses via rawstory.com
Maxine Waters has just introduced The Major Drug Trafficking Prosecution Act of 2009 in the House. This bill would remove the mandatory minimums found in drug laws and give discretion back to the judge.
“This legislation will refocus federal prosecutorial resources on major drug traffickers and eliminate racial disparities created by the mandatory minimum sentences for power and crack cocaine,” said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), who authored the bill
“In the 1980s, Congress passed two Anti-Drug Abuse Acts with the goal that federal prosecutors would go after major drug traffickers at the top of the food chain, instead of low-level drug offenders at the bottom,” Waters continued. “Lengthy mandatory minimum sentences were passed for most drug crimes. These mandatory terms are based solely on the weight and the drug involved, and, with very few exceptions, the courts cannot sentence below them.”
“Twenty years later,” she added, “mandatory drug sentences have utterly failed to achieve Congress’ goals.”
The text of the bill can be found here. Her floor statement introducing the bill can be found here.
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Well Done Max!! An E
xcellent start
The only problem that I see is that although the judges may have discretional authority, it is completly possible that the consensus of the judicary will be to continue to impose maximum sentences.
There needs to be a required uniformity in sentencing of scheduled narcotics. This is the only way to insure equality in the application of the sentencing laws.
This is good, mandatory minimums are just a construct of the private prisons run for profit to keep prisoners longer which means more tax payer money for the prison owner. I doubt it will pass though the prison industrial complex has way too much power in Washington, checkout how much of a strangle-hold they have on California. (ex., Prop. 5 and the prison guard union.)