A Christmas Wish: No More Mandatory Minimums

Christmas is here and every child in the country is running to the mall Santa to ask for their favorite new toy. As for me, I would like to ask the political Santa for a gift this year: Ole Saint Nick, please eliminate mandatory minimums.

Every year it seems judges lose a little more of their responsibility due to members of congress who want to appear hard on crime before the election season comes around again. When congress passed mandatory minimums for drug offenses they thought it would make them appear strong against crime and that drug crimes would be prevented. However, mandatory minimums have not reduced the amount of drug-related crimes, but they have increased the amount of people incarcerated for them.

Judges are being forced to sentence people in accordance with guidelines that presuppose all drug related cases are the same and should be treated as such. This prevents judges from examining the nuances of each case and they are forced to sentence a non-violent mother of three who is a first time offender the same as they do a person who has a criminal history. If this continues, soon there will be no need for judges; we will convert to a conveyor belt system that sentences and incarcerates people in only a few minutes without any regard for each individual case's details.

So Santa, if you would: eliminate mandatory minimums and restore our judicial system to a system of juries and judges.

For more information of mandatory minimums visit Families Against Mandatory Minimums at http://www.famm.org/