A recent poll shows that 60 percent of respondents oppose harsh mandatory minimum sentencing laws for non-violent crimes.
Drug laws pushed through in the 1980s have led to a burgeoning prison population. More than two million people are in prison in the United States today, far more than any other country.
Mandatory sentencing for possession of crack cocaine illustrates the racist nature of the laws. Five grams of crack cocaine triggers the same five-year sentence as 500 hundred grams of powder cocaine. The cheaper crack cocaine is more prevalent among Black and low-income users.
Julie Stewart, President and Founder of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, the organization that commissioned the poll, noted: “The public is ahead of the politicians on this. This is a message members of Congress haven’t heard.”
