Mandatory Minimums

In a major policy speech to the American Bar Association Monday, Attorney General Eric Holder announced sentencing reform measures he is ordering the Justice Department to undertake, especially backing away from the use of mandatory minimum sentencing for low-level nonviolent drug offenders.

In a decision that should cut back on prison time for some drug offenders, the Supreme Court has held that facts used to impose mandatory minimum sentences must be proven before a jury -- not a judge with a lower standard of proof.

A US district court judge has lambasted federal meth sentencing guidelines as harsh, unfair, based on politics instead of science, and "fundamentally flawed." He's not the only one.

With the introduction of the Justice Safety Valve Act of 2013 in the House this week, now both houses of Congress have the sentencing reform bill before them.

Sens. Pat Leahy (D) and Rand Paul (R) have joined together to introduce a mandatory minimum sentence reform bill. The bill would expand the "safety valve" to all federal offenses, not just selected drug offenses.

There's a Hollywood blockbuster action thriller with a message of interest to drug reformers. "Snitch" tells a tale of family sorrow and tragedy wrapped inside drug war injustices, and it's doing just fine at the box office.

Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT), head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has said he wants to abolish mandatory minimum sentences, and he hopes the federal government doesn't spend a lot of money enforcing marijuana laws in states where it is legal.