Mandatory Drug Sentencing – Unjust and Inhumane?

A recent poll showed that sixty percent of Americans oppose laws mandating minimum prison terms for non-violent crimes, such as drug offenses, according to the Christian Monitor.

“This means that more individuals realize that mandatory sentencing laws for drug possession can make effective drug rehab meaningless in the eyes of the law,” comments Ms. Mary Rieser, Executive Director of Narconon Drug Rehab Georgia.

“An offender who is a drug abuser, or a drug addict, may be charged with a drug related crime, graduate from successful drug treatment and turn their life around, only to be sent to prison.  There is no one who benefits from this, and society could lose potentially productive individuals to prison where they are likely to be ruined.”

Let’s look at just one state, New York, and see how these mandatory sentencing laws, passed 26 years ago, have changed the New York Prison population:

• Over 90% of the inmates locked up in New York State prisons today for drug offenses are there because of the mandatory sentencing provisions of two laws that were passed 26 years ago, in 1973.
• As of December 31, 1998, the costs for incarcerating drug offenders was over $295 million per year for first offenders, and costs over $365 million per year for second offenders.
• As of December 31, 1998, there were 5,639 people locked up in NYS prisons for drug possession, as opposed to drug selling
• As of December 31, 1998, there were 22,386 drug offenders in the NYS prison system, about 33% of the entire prison population.
• In 1980, 886 drug offenders were sent to State prison, 11% of the total commitments for that year.
Criminal Histories of Drug Offenders
• Of all drug offenders sent to NYS prisons in 1997, nearly 80% were never convicted of a violent felony and nearly half were never arrested for a violent felony.
• Of drug offenders sent to NYS prisons in 1997, nearly 32% had no prior felony convictions and over 17% had never been arrested for a felony.
• 25% of the drug offenders in NYS prisons were convicted of simple drug possession.
• 60% of the drug offenders in NYS prisons were convicted of the three lowest felonies - Class C, D, or E - which involve only minute drug amounts. For example, only 1/2 gram of cocaine is required for conviction of Class D felony possession, and 1,242 people are locked up for that offense.

Source: Drug Policy Allowance

“Mandatory sentencing means that there is no individual justice,” continues Ms. Rieser.  “A Judge, upon seeing someone turn their life around, after a drug related brush with the law, must give them the same sentence as someone who has no intention to improve their lot.  The only similarity is the drugs they were caught with.  This leaves the courts, not the Judges, imposing the sentence. Is it any wonder that we have the highest per capita rate of incarceration in the world?”

"For nearly four decades, New York has imposed some of the harshest penalties for drug possession in the country," Silver (D-Manhattan) said. "Unfortunately, New York's drug laws have done little to address the underlying clinical needs of drug abusers and have failed to reduce drug-related crime. It is essential that New York re-examine whether its drug policies can better address issues of treatment and give drug offenders a better chance at sobriety to reduce unnecessary imprisonment and create savings to taxpayers in dealing with the scourge of illegal drugs."

If someone you know is drug addicted, call us.  We have a 76% success rate.

We are Narconon – The New Life Program.

Call Narconon Drug Rehab in Georgia at 1-877-413-3073.
      
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