Today, America holds more prisoners, by far, than any other country in the world. Our overcrowded federal prisons consume one quarter of DOJ's discretionary budget. This undermines other important priorities, like preventing crime and treating drug addiction.
The largest increase in the federal prison population is nonviolent drug offenders, and this is because of inflexible mandatory minimum sentences. These mandatory penalties don’t allow judges to distinguish between drug kingpins—who should be our focus—and lower-level offenders.
We also have to consider the racially disparate impact of these unfair laws. The majority of illegal drug users & dealers in our country are white, but 3/4s of all people incarcerated for drug offenses are African American or Latino.
And the large majority of those subject to federal mandatory minimum penalties are African-American and Latino. The Senate now has a unique opportunity to reform these outdated and unfair policies.
The comprehensive #cjreform bill is the best chance in a generation to make meaningful changes in our federal drug sentencing laws. We can’t waste this opportunity to help thousands of people have a second chance at life, and even the scales of justice.
