Exploring Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Laws

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Mandatory minimum sentencing laws for criminal offenses started in the 1970s and continued throughout the 1980s and the 1990s. States that implemented such laws sought to reduce drug use and crimes; control judicial discretion over sentencing; increase sentences for serious and violent offenders; and to send a message to the general public that serious action will be taken for violations related to drugs and repeatedly committing other crimes. Mandatory minimum sentencing laws set minimum sentences for certain crimes that judges cannot lower, even for extenuating circumstances. The most common of these laws deal with drug offenses and set mandatory minimum sentences for possession of a drug over a certain amount (American Civil Liberties …show more content…

Jarecki, teases out racism as the center piece of the drug war, new sentencing guidelines and the resulting prison enterprise. He dared to broach the subject of an era when state and local government do not have the cash to provide basic services to their citizens there was the foresight to continue making numerous arrests for nonviolent drug offenses and create prison enterprise to house them. In my opinion, the enterprise at the time was only known to politicians, correctional institutions and private contractors. Then, with almost laser-guided precision a disproportionate burden of the sentences fell on African Americans. Mr. Jarecki is direct his statements that American drug laws are laden in racism. Time and again, politicians have criminalized the habits of certain groups of people to fulfill an agenda unbeknownst to the intended target. With this theory in mind, the latest strategy was seemingly designed for African Americans, but other ethnic groups have been targeted in the past. There was opium as an illicit drug connected Chinese immigrants at the turn of the century. We completely ignored, during the same time Americans used opium in elixirs and tinctures for medicinal purposes (Dial, 2013). Later there was hemp linked to Mexicans immigrants, the marijuana of the day. There was not much to hide about the fact that both Mexicans and Chinese had incredible work ethic, and the willingness to take low wages. This notion ultimately meant

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