Essay On Mandatory Minimums

As an American who is privileged enough to live in a wealthy community, attend a good school, and not have to worry about where my next meal will come from, many of my country’s most pressing issues aren’t problems I’m faced with on a daily basis. However, many Americans are uninformed and subsequently overlook one such issue, unaware of the harmful effect it has on their lives. The “it” in question is mandatory minimum sentencing policy. While most people assume these laws have no affect on anyone excluding the person being sentenced, in reality, the effects of mandatory minimums are far reaching. Aside from the prisoner and his/her family, the tax dollars or hard-working citizens are used to pay for the extended prison stays of thousands of fellow Americans. A whopping 67% of them are nonviolent drug offenders, according to a U.S. Sentencing Commission Report to Congress. It is imperative that the American government abolishes mandatory minimums because they have an
Think about that.” Mandatory minimums are an outdated, destructive policy that the U.S. never has, and never will need. In order to reform our criminal justice system, and ensure that the people who go to prison are there for a time that’s proportional to the crime they commit, we must get rid of mandatory minimums. Aside from the harm they cause to the prisoner, law-abiding American taxpayers are burdened by the unnecessary cost of keeping people in prisons for much longer than is needed. Of course, mandatory minimums are far from the only problem within the U.S. criminal justice system, however, abolishing these ridiculous laws will help thousands of current American prisoners, as well as innumerable future offenders. Overall, mandatory minimum sentencing policy must be ended in the near future, should America hold true to its values of “freedom and justice for