Mandatory sentencing contributes to increasing prison population
By Sean Spencer and Adam Lindner
The United States has 5% of the world’s population, while housing 25% of the world's prison population, according to PolitiFact.
Mandatory sentencing is when a judge is required to impose a particular sentence for crime, regardless of the circumstances.
These laws have been controversial, as the prison population has only increased with the implementation of these laws.
Mandatory minimum sentencing was introduced at the federal level in the 1980s and in Pennsylvania in the 1990s to combat violent crime, especially crime associated with the crack epidemic.
Laws allowed prosecutors to lengthen prison terms for drug dealing, firearms offenses and violent crimes.
The war in Vietnam had led to a heroin epidemic amongst United States servicemen. President Nixon had declared drug abuse “public enemy number 1” in 1971.
The “War on Drugs” was a national campaign with the goal of reducing the illegal drug trade in the United States.
In the 1980s, crack-cocaine had been introduced to the inner-city, and the crime rate skyrocketed.
The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 set mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines for drug offenses.
The law mandated minimum sentences of 5 and 10 years without parole for drug possession, based on the amount of drugs.
On March 7, 1994, the “three-strike laws” were implemented nationwide, including Pennsylvania.
Being convicted of a serious felony, along with two past convictions, would lead to you to a mandatory life sentence.
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According to a 2009 report from the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing, “Mandatory minimum sentences don’t reduce crime or recidivism but have led to higher tax payers cost.”
Tom Corbett, Pennsylvania’s 46th governor and now an Executive in Residence at Duquesne University Law School, provided several insights as to why mandatory sentencing was put into place.
While governor of Pennsylvania, Corbett was criticized in his approach to reforming mandatory minimum sentencing.
Graph by Sean Spencer
Statistics are from the 13th documentary. Mandatory minimums sentencing begins to take place in the mid-1980’s.
In 2012, Corbett passed the Brad Fox Law, which imposes a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years for any straw purchaser conviction.
“There’s a couple different reasons why you have … sentences,” Corbett said. “The first is punishment. The person has to be punished for the act that they committed.”
“The other factor is supposed to be rehabilitation. When they started going to [mandatory sentencing guidelines, they got away from rehabilitation. It was just, ‘Here is your punishment, it’s going to be x amount of years.’”
Corbett recalled major shifts in regard to sentencing guidelines when he began acting as U.S. Attorney in Pittsburgh in 1989.
“The cocaine problem, was so huge — crack cocaine everywhere in the country — that legislators started campaigning on … getting tough on crime; basically, tough on drugs,” Corbett said.
Graph by Sean Spencer
Drug arrests and violent crime still increased despite sentencing laws enforced. Statistics from www.nap.edu.
John Rago, a law professor at Duquesne University who has worked in the area of wrongful convictions, has a negative opinion on mandatory minimums.
“Mandatory sentencing does not work,” he said. “Judges can’t stand mandatory minimums.”
Mandatory minimum sentencing takes away the discretion of the judge. It ignores the person’s situation.
Corbett echoed Rago’s sentiment regarding mandatory sentencing guidelines and judges’ distaste for them, but he added that prosecutors used them as a tool in getting suspects to cooperate.
Instead of helping the drug addict go to a rehabilitation center, states sent them to prison.
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“Incarceration should be a last resort, not a first resort,” said Rago.
He told a story to illustrate why he feels mandatory sentencing is unjust.
A son and his father got into a car accident 25 years ago, and the father died.
The son was given a breathalyzer test, and he was over the legal limit.
The son was sentenced to a mandatory three years for death while driving under the influence.
“Nobody in the room thought [the sentence] was appropriate, but everyone’s hands were tied,” said Rago.“Did he intend to kill his father? Of course not.”
Rago said, “Is the [circumstance] the same for everyone or is that a unique circumstance?”
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“That’s why mandatories aren’t any good. Maybe in some cases that would fit, but in this case it doesn’t fit,” said Rago.
Mandatory sentencing has been considered a way to target minorities to put them in prison.
The same 5 grams of crack cocaine would you get the same mandatory 5 years if you had 500 grams of powder cocaine.
Graph by Sean Spencer
2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Black Americans are only 12% of the population but are 3.5 times more likely than whites to be regular crack users.
According to a 2015 study, “Powder Cocaine and Crack Use in the United States: An Examination of Risk for Arrest and Socioeconomic Disparities in Use,” racial minorities were at low risk for powder cocaine use. However, blacks were at increased risk for lifetime and recent crack use.
In 1995, the U.S. Sentencing Commission concluded that the disparity created a "racial imbalance in federal prisons and led to more severe sentences for low-level crack dealers than for wholesale suppliers of powder cocaine.”
“As a result, thousands of people – mostly African Americans – have received disproportionately harsh prison sentences.”
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In 2010, the Fair Sentencing Act reduced this 100:1 weight ratio to 18:1.
African Americans make up 12% of the United States population, but account for 40% of the national prison population.
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One in three African American men will go to jail, compared with one in 17 white American men.
Rev. Cornell Jones, a founder of 1Hood and a “street and prison pastor,” has dedicated his life to helping people who’ve been behind bars.
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Jones has dealt with returned citizens who were in prison for more than 40 years.
His goal, he said, is to “walk hand in hand with them,” and connect them with the right resources and support to get them on their feet.
Jones said there’s a lot of injustice and lack of hope because black people know the criminal justice system is unfair.
“It’s nothing but the new Jim Crow,” said Jones. “They’re making money on people the longer they stay in the [prison] system.”
“The criminal justice system is unfair to minorities,” said Jones. “I believe mandatory sentencing targeted minority communities,” said Jones.
In the 2019 annual statistical survey of prisoners issued by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, results show that African-American male imprisonment rates have dropped by a third since its peak.