My first Magazine Final Draft Multimodal Project 4 | Page 6

The American public was disenchanted with the seemingly arbitrary mandatory mini-
mums that had been legislated into law since the early 1950’s. The public desired “a more realis-
tic, more flexible, and thus more effective system of punishment and deterrence of violations of
federal narcotics laws” (ussc.gov), which propelled Congress to abolish the majority of such sen-
tences in 1970. Although it appeared as though incarceration rates might decline as a result,
Nixon’s declaration of War on Crime disappointed any such notions. In response to growing con-
cern over the rate of violent incidences in the nation, Nixon vowed to double the incarceration
rate; subsequently initiating a steady rise in prison population following his being elected. Fol-
lowing Jimmy Carter’s liberal stint as President, America elected Ronald Reagan who wasted no
time in declaring a War on Drugs. The War on Drugs brought about a number of reforms that leg-
islated harsh mandatory minimum sentences.