House Subcommittee Members Seek To Eliminate Mandatory Minimum Sentences For Drug Offenders

By Aaron Richardson

The House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security held a hearing Tuesday to consider legislation that would eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders.

“The current sentencing requirements have failed to accomplish the legislative intent of the 1986 anti drug abuse act. We are wasting precious government resources on low level drug offenders. Moreover, the act has had a desolate impact on the African American community resulting in the incarceration of a disproportionate amount of African Americans often for many, many years,” said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.).

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tx.) gave his input on why eliminating minimum sentences could be dangerous to society as a whole.

“Judges should not be free to sentence felonies as misdemeanors. If there is no bottom to the range there will be more incidents where people will be killed or harmed because of light sentences.” said Gohmert.

Julie Stewart, President and Founder of Families Against Mandatory Minimums Foundation (FAMM), discussed the impact mandatory minimum sentences have had on the U.S.

“Since the passage of the Safety Valve which allows the courts to sentence below the mandatory minimum for a narrow band of drug defendants over 210,000 people have been sentenced federally to 5 or 10 year mandatory prison sentences. That’s an enormous number of families affected by these one size fits all sentences.” Said Stewart.