Yet another great moment in legislative stupidity. If you have any respect for our country, and don't wish our jails to be even more stuffed with non-violent herb smokers, please take a couple of moments and send your legislators an email/fax/letter, via this handy tool. More about this crazy bill:
Families Against Mandatory Minimums -- Legislative Alerts and Updates:
H.R. 1528, the new version of “Defending America's Most Vulnerable: Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act of 2004,” by Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), was passed by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security on April 12 and FAMM expects the full House Judiciary Committee to vote on it as early as next week (April 18 - 22, 2005). If this bill becomes law, it will have a disastrous effect on the federal sentencing system. We must act now to stop H.R. 1528. ...
WHAT'S WRONG WITH H.R. 1528?
Among other things, it:
- Makes the federal sentencing guidelines a system of mandatory minimum sentences through a “Booker-fix” provision.
- Creates new mandatory minimums that further erode judicial discretion.
- Eliminates the safety valve for low-level drug offenders.
- Makes virtually every drug crime committed in urban areas subject to “drug free zone” penalties that carries a five-year mandatory minimum sentence.
- Punishes defendants for the “relevant conduct” of co-conspirators that occurred BEFORE the defendant joined the conspiracy.
As written, H.R. 1528 would:
- Effectively make the federal sentencing guidelines a system of mandatory minimum sentences through a “Booker-fix” provision. This provision forbids judges from departing below the guideline sentence in all but a few cases.
- Make the sale of any quantity of any controlled substance (including anything greater than five grams of marijuana) by a person older than 21 to a person younger than 18 subject to a ten-year federal mandatory minimum sentence.
-Create a new three-year mandatory minimum for parents who witness or learn about drug trafficking activities, targeting or even near their children, if they do not report it to law enforcement authorities within 24 hours and do not provide full assistance investigating, apprehending, and prosecuting the offender.
-Create a new 10-year mandatory minimum sentence for any parent committing a drug trafficking crime in or near the presence of their minor child.
- Mandate life in prison for persons 21 years or older convicted a second time of distributing drugs to a person under 18 or convicted a first time after a felony drug conviction has become final.
- Increase to five years the federal mandatory minimum sentence for the sale of a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a school, college, public library, drug treatment facility (or any place where drug treatment, including classes, are held), or private or public daycare facilities - in short, almost anywhere in cities across the U.S.
- Eliminate the federal “safety valve,” granting it only when the government certifies that the defendant pled guilty to the most serious readily provable offense (the one that carries the longest sentence), and has “done everything possible to assist substantially in the investigation and prosecution of another person,” and would prohibit the federal “safety-valve” in cases where drugs were distributed or possessed near a person under 18, where the defendant delayed his or her efforts to provide substantial assistance to the government, or provided false, misleading or incomplete information.
More gory details at the always essential TalkLeft, or Pete Guithier's DrugWar Rant
