There are no mandatory minimum sentences for offenses like rape, child molestation, murder, aggravated assault, or other violent crimes-- only for drug crimes!!! Therefore, violent criminals are now often released early to make room for nonviolent first-time drug offenders. The average murderer now serves only six and a half years in jail (compare with the five years minimum sentence for a non-violent, first time drug offender!!)
Here's what the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers has to say about Mandatory Minimums:
"Mandatory minimums sentences should be repealed because they are unnecessary, inefficient and grossly unfair. Mandatory minimum sentencing deprives judges of the ability to fashion sentences that suit the particular offense and offender. At great cost to taxpayers, mandatory minimums have forced judges to sentence thousands of first-time, non-violent drug offenders to unconscionably long prison terms. The Judicial Conferences of all 12 federal circuits have urged the repeal of mandatory minimum sentences, after concluding that they are unfair and ineffective. Commenting on a minor, first-time drug offender sentenced to life imprisonment, Chief Justice William Rehnquist has called mandatory drug sentencing "a good example of the law of unintended consequences."
"Unwarranted sentencing disparity is one consequence of this scheme that shifts sentencing discretion from judges to prosecutors. Such drug sentencing laws disproportionately affect minorities and have contributed greatly to the more than threefold increase in the U.S. prison population during the past decade. Numerous studies, including those by the Department of Justice and the U.S. Sentencing Commission, indicate that mandatory minimum sentencing is not an effective instrument for deterring crime, and a RAND Corporation study found that drug treatment is seven times more cost-effective than mandatory minimum sentencing."( See National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers )
More Links:
Families Against Mandatory Minimums
Drug War Facts
Justice Goes to Pot, by B.J. Oppenheimer
Should Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Laws Be Repealed?
Why is America in the Dark Ages in terms of its Drug and Sentencing Policies?
Because of Draconian Attitudes like These:
Drug Watch International
"Project Triggerlock"