Mandatory Minimums

The unequal distribution of equality throughout the United States affects many aspects of society. This injustice is seen in many different forms such as the wage gap between genders, racial discrimination, homelessness and even incarceration based on color. One of the main causes to the extremely high incarceration rate in the United States is the mandatory minimums set in place in the federal legislation. “Mandatory minimum sentencing laws require binding prison terms of a particular length for people convicted of certain federal and state crimes” (What are mandatory minimums?). This “one size fits all” way of determining individuals sentencing wipes away any opportunity for defendants to fight for their case and unique situations. In revoking

(Kelly 2015). This injustice seen within the system is a prime example of social justice issues in the United States.The racial discrimination at play in the incarceration process has led to over half of the 2.3 million people in prison, being of color. This means one out of every seven people arrested are white, the other six are African American (Kelly 2015). The United States is in need of a change of policy and order of operations in order to see a positive alteration involving mass incarceration. There are multiple changes that could take place at the federal and county levels in order to reduce the incarceration levels. A change in the positive direction could stem from a reduction in overall mandatory minimums resulting in more equal trials, reducing and ultimately getting rid of all racial stereotypes towards African Americans and their unequal sentencing based on color, and enforcing a nonviolent atmosphere in and out of prisons to encourage positive changes rather than negative involving racial stereotyping and nonviolent

The combination of mandatory minimums and racial stereotyping has lead to over half of the prison populations being African American males. That is 1.15 million African Americans who find themselves within the United States prison system. The drastic increase in prison populations began in the early 1960’s when mandatory minimums were beginning to be instituted. Bruce Winston and Christopher Wildeman write that “the growth of harsh sentencing policies and a punitive approach to drug control began with a rightward shift in American politics, first visible at the national level in the mid-1960’s” (The Black Family and Mass Incarceration 2009). Noticeable changes were not seen until the early 1980’s when policies and mandatory minimums regarding the War on Drugs were finally instated and enforced. Current crimes that have enforced mandatory minimums include drug trafficking, importation and exportation of drugs, guns, sexual assault and child pornography as well as immigration. These mandatory minimums range from as little as 5 years to a mandatory life sentence. mandatory minimums are enforced at a federal level, not a state level and are most frequently enforced for drug related crimes. This includes anything involving the possession of 1 kg + of heroin up to 1000 kg + of marijuana or 1000+ plants. The