Criminal Justice | Mandatory Minimum Sentences Are Ineffective in the War Against Drugs

Mandatory minimum sentencing laws require judges to impose fixed sentences for particular crimes, usually drug infractions. In the following viewpoint, Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), an organization dedicated to reforming the mandatory minimum sentencing laws, argues that inflexible mandatory minimum sentences are excessive and are used too frequently against low-level, nonviolent drug offenders. The safety valve provisions, which are supposed to prevent these small-time drug offenders from receiving excessively harsh sentences, are too narrowly drawn to help them, FAMM...

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