Burchett / 5 Senator Ortiz

S.W._____

A BILL
To restore fairness to the criminal justice system by scaling back and standardizing mandatory minimum sentencing
laws in the United States and to allow nonviolent drug offenders imprisoned under mandatory minimum laws to
appeal for reduced terms.
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE
This act may be cited as the Minimum Sentencing Reform Act of 2015.
SECTION 2. FINDINGS
Congress hereby finds and declares that,
A) Mandatory minimum sentencing was removed from federal law in 1970 but were reinstated during the Reagan
presidency.
B) Since the 1980s the U.S. prison population has quadrupled, and 1% of the U.S. adult population is imprisoned.
C) The 1991 U.S. Sentencing commission criticized mandatory minimums as manifestly unjust and having
stripped judges of their power to judge severity.
D) Mandatory minimum sentences are inconsistent in severity in different states.
E) Only 11% of drug trafficking defendants were major offenders.
F) Mandatory minimums can give drug offenders up to 55 years in prison, while terrorists and child rapists might
receive 10-20 years.
G) Enforcement of drug laws disproportionately affects racial minorities.
H) 90 95% of all U.S. Criminal Cases end in guilty pleas
I) Incarceration has a limited impact on crime rates, and future crime reduction as a result of additional prison
expansion will be even smaller and more expensive to achieve.
J) Federal Prisons are overcrowded by 37%. The Department of Justice recently called mass incarceration a
budgetary nightmare.
K) Attorney General Eric Holder condemns mandatory minimums as draconian and ineffective.
L) The 100 to 1 sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine specifically targets communities of color and
disproportionately affects the poor.
M) The United States spends 80 billion dollars annually, incarcerating 2.2 million people, 25% of the worlds prison
population.
N) Mandatory minimums reduce cocaine use less per dollar than rehabilitation programs would.
SECTION 3. STATUTORY LANGUAGE
A) This act hereby repeals H.R.5484 the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. Judges at the local, state, and federal level
shall henceforth sentence nonviolent drug offenders according to their own judgement of severity. Judges may refer
to H.R.5484 in their sentencing severity, but shall not be bound to give a minimum sentence. State legislatures shall
pass no laws requiring minimum prison sentences for nonviolent drug offenders.
Nonviolent drug offenders imprisoned under H.R.5484 or any state mandatory minimum sentencing law may appeal
for parole or for a reduced sentence. The result of such an appeal shall be at the discretion of the judge.
B) This law shall be enforced and upheld by the Department of Justice.
C) This bill shall go into effect January 1, 2016.