Reaping the Maximum Benefit of Reducing Mandatory Minimum Sentences

In an increasingly polarized country, finding bipartisan solutions to problems seems as unmanageable as it is elusive. However, it still exists. About a month ago, the Brennan Center for Justice released a report entitled Criminal Justice: An Election Agenda for Candidates, Activists, and Legislators. Reading through the report, one of the policy alternatives that caught my eye is to pass the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act in response to mandatory minimum sentences (see Federal government 2017 overview here). What exactly are mandatory minimum sentences?

For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, federal trial judges essentially had unlimited discretion in their ability to sentence. Mandatory minimum sentences first started in the United States with the Bogg Act of 1951, but really did not take off until the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 combined with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. There are few purposes of mandatory minimum sentences. One is to expedite the judicial process. Another is to make sure that there were less irregularities than with judicial discretion. Finally, it is to send a message that certain crimes will not be tolerated. Even if mandatory minimum sentences were a response to the good intention of reducing the high crime rates that permeated throughout the United States in the 1970s and 1980s, we have to come to terms with the fact that it had some unintended consequences on our justice system (e.g., Tonry, 2009).

As the Brennan Center points out in its report, the federal prison population increased by an astounding 750 percent in the past 30 years, from 22,000 prisoners to 200,000 prisoners. About half of the federal prison population is non-violent low-level drug offenders (Taxy and Kotonias, 2015). When accounting for the state level, the United States went from imprisoning 100 people per 100,000 residents to 760 people per 100,000 residents. That is a 660 percent increase! Don't think that the increase in the prisoner population didn't come with a huge price tag because it did. In its 2014 report on incarceration, the Brookings Institute calculated that prison costs quadrupled in inflation-adjusted dollars from 1980 to 2010!

Here are a few other fun facts on the topic:

• A report from the Brennan Center of Justice (Roeder et al., 2015) examined what caused the drop in crime since the 1990s, and concluded that anywhere from 0 to 7 percent of the drop was due to mass incarceration. More to the point, a 2014 report from Pew Research suggests that lowering incarceration rates has led to lower crime rates. This should provide adequate evidence that there is a lack of correlation between incarceration rates and crime rates. Additionally, research suggests that it is the certainty of apprehension, and not necessarily the long sentence, that deters would-be offenders.
• Mass incarceration has done little to improve public safety (e.g., McCrary and Sanga, 2012). 
• According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) 2012 report, it also jeopardizes the safety of corrections officers.
• In 2013, the Urban Institute projected that reducing mandatory minimum sentences by half would reduce prison overcrowding by over half within the next decade (Samuels et al., 2013, p. 24).
• A 2014 report commissioned by the Department of Justice shows how lowering minimum sentences in such states as Texas, Georgia, and Pennsylvania has cut costs and held offenders accountable. 
• Reducing mandatory sentences reduced recidivism, diversion, and racial disparities in New York City (Parsons et al., 2015).
• The Rand Corporation showed over twenty years ago how investing in treatment is more cost-effective than imprisoning those with drug addiction (Caulkins, 1997). 
• A report from Pew Research that came out last month concluded that there is no correlation between prison terms and drug misuse (also see Pollack and Reuter, 2014; Gelb, 2015). 
• As the Right-leaning Heritage Foundation argues, mandatory minimum sentences shift discretion from judges to prosecutors. Not only are prosecutors not trained in such matters, they are actually incentivized to not exercise discretion. 
• Last month, I covered the topic of "ban the box" laws. After ex-offenders leave prison, they have a difficult time integrating back into society, which increases likelihood of reoffending. The mandatory minimum sentences contribute to a revolving door that makes life difficult for many Americans while costing the taxpayer. 

To summarize, mandatory minimum sentencing has increased taxpayer spending, does next to nothing to reduce crime, wastes scarce criminal justice resources, and ruins peoples' lives. It's no wonder that 87 percent of Americans disapprove of mandatory minimum sentences, as did the bipartisan Colson Task Force that Congress created to examine federal corrections reform. I understand that there has to be a balance. If judges have complete discretion, there will be major disparities in the justice system. If there are mandatory minimum sentences, judges do not have the discretion to determine if extenuating circumstances render the sentence to be too harsh. That being said, prison should be for those who commit the most serious of crimes, not for non-violent drug offenders. By reducing mandatory minimum sentences, we can take the first steps to keeping our streets safer, taxpayer costs down, and better ensure that justice is served.