My first Magazine Final Draft Multimodal Project 4 | Page 16

existed for decades. Unfortunately the Act did nothing to amend the lengthy prison sentences of
those already convicted prior to the FSA’s creation.
Mandatory minimum sentences do not take extraneous factors such as drug addiction into
account when repeat offenders are tried, this is a significant factor in explaining unfair prison
sentences being given to nonviolent offenders suffering from health problems. Judge Mark Ben-
nett is a vocal critic of mandatory minimum sentences. A federal judge in Iowa, Bennett is forced
to sentence thousands of people annually on sentences he deems to be too harsh for the crime
committed. When Attorney General Eric Holder announced a “fundamentally new approach to
the criminal justice system” in August of 2014, Bennett was quick to refute this statement, con-
tending that the existence of mandatory minimums and their “arbitrary application by the De-
partment of Justice” (The Nation), will keep drug sentences excessive and unfair. The judicial
system allows prosecutors to dig into a person’s history and dust off decades old, unrelated of-
fenses to use as a recidivist enhancement in lengthening one’s sentence. Bennett claims that
prosecutors and law enforcement use this ability to extract information from those convicted,
threatening them with excruciatingly long sentences. Bennett refers to the arbitrary system with
all of its disparities as a “Wheel of Misfortune” that is leaving nonviolent drug offenders, many
of whom are mere addicts, to rot in our prisons without a chance of parole aside from an unlikely
presidential pardon.
The inability of judges to ascertain mitigating factors when doling out sentences has contributed
significantly to the mass incarceration epidemic plaguing America. Forcing the judiciary to lock
up nonviolent offenders for prolonged terms neglects to rehabilitate the behavior, alienates the
offender and creates unnecessary stress on already overcrowded prisons.