6.5 Mandatory Minimums and Sentencing Enhancements
6.5 Mandatory Minimums and Sentencing Enhancements
Lore Rutz-Burri; Kate McLean; and Chantel Chauvin
Mandatory Minimum Sentences
Legislative enactments, ballot measures, initiatives, and referendums have resulted in mandatory minimum sentencing schemes, in which offenders who commit certain crimes must be sentenced to prison terms for minimum periods. Mandatory minimum sentences take precedence over, but do not completely replace, whatever other statutory or administrative sentencing guidelines may be in existence. It is possible for a judge to impose a sentence that exceeds the mandatory minimum, following their judgment that an offender warrants a particularly harsh guideline sentence due to their criminal history or the brutality of their crime; however, judges may not impose a sentence lower than the mandatory minimum.
Mandatory minimum sentences are a type of determinate sentence. At the state level, most mandatory minimum sentences are attached to violent offenses or offenses involving the use of firearms. Federal law also mandates minimum prison terms for certain drug crimes prosecuted in federal courts. For example, a person charged with possession with the intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine – or 0.28 kilograms of crack cocaine – is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years in prison (See, 21 U.S.C.A. §841 (b)(1)(A)). Indeed, the severe mandatory minimums – and unjustified, racialized disparities – for federal drug offenses has driven a growing outcry against mandatory minimum sentencing schemes, which have not been shown to reduce sentencing disparities or offender recidivism.
Racial Disparities in Imprisonment
In fact, studies have shown that certain mandatory minimum laws have increased racial disparities in imprisonment, particularly the imprisonment of Black drug offenders.
Read an excellent paper discussing racial disparities in mandatory minimums from Undergraduate Economic Review.
Many parties across the political spectrum agree that these attempts to limit judicial discretion may have gone too far. Judges must impose mandatory minimum sentences regardless of any compelling mitigating facts that warrant a lesser sentence, even when victims fervently request leniency for the defendant. Sentencing discretion resting with a neutral judge has been replaced by charging discretion resting with the prosecutor. Prosecutors, in filing certain charges that carry mandatory minimum sentences, can effectively compel negotiated pleas. On December 18, 2018, a bi-partisan bill for criminal justice reform called the First Step Act passed the U.S. Senate with an 87-12 vote and was signed into law by President Trump. Ultimately, this law – which makes retroactive changes to mandatory minimum sentences passed in 2010, has resulted in a 13% decline in the federal prison population.
The First Step Act
For an overview of the First Step Act, see the Federal Bureau of Prisons website.
For expanded and detailed information