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| Mandatory minimums don't reduce recidivism. So why is Pa. weighing bringing them back? |
| By Samantha Melamed - philly.com |
| Published: 03/23/2017 |
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In 2015, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court found the state’s mandatory minimum sentences to be illegal -- with a single, 3-2 ruling eradicating a favorite tool of prosecutors and a longtime target of criminal-justice reformers. Now, a Montgomery County legislator is on a mission to resuscitate them. Republican State Rep. Todd Stephens, himself a former prosecutor, introduced the legislation last week after hearing from district attorneys who, he said, "have been yearning to have these restored." But he’s staring down a broad and unlikely coalition of opponents, including the conservative Commonwealth Foundation, the Pennsylvania ACLU, and the state Department of Corrections. The department links the decline in the state prison population in the last few years partly to the end of mandatory minimum sentences. It estimates that restoring them could cost $19 million in the first year and as much as $85.5 million annually down the road. The proposal is shaping up as a face-off between proponents of the tough-on-crime thinking that birthed harsh mandatory minimums during the 1980s war on drugs, and a prison-reform movement intent on reversing trends that have swollen the state inmate population from about 7,000 in 1980 to more than 49,000 today. Read More. |
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