MANDATORY MINIMUMS 'NOT UNIFORMLY APPLIED,' CONGRESSWOMAN SAYS

Mandatory sentencing laws too often force judges to impose
discriminatory prison terms on minority defendants, a California
congresswoman said Friday.

"We're seeing that mandatory minimums are not uniformly applied. Black
men and women are serving longer sentences than their white
counterparts," Democratic U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters said at a conference
on drug-policy reform that brought together religious leaders, elected
officials and drug-policy experts.

She said there is a need to rethink the federal government's war on
drugs, particularly mandatory minimum sentencing laws.

Such laws, she said, force judges to hand out predeterminate
sentences, without parole, to people convicted of certain crimes,
particularly drug-related offenses. Women have been sentenced to
prison for answering the telephone, she said. For even talking to
whoever was on the other end of the line, women have been convicted of
drug conspiracy, she said.

"The rate of imprisonment for black women is more than eight times the
rate of imprisonment of white women. The rate of imprisonment of
Hispanic women is nearly four times the rate of imprisonment of white
women," Waters said.

Last week, Waters reintroduced a bill to repeal mandatory minimum
sentences for drug related offenses. The Major Drug Trafficking
Prosecution Act of 2001 would eliminate mandatory minimum sentences
for simple possession, distribution, manufacturing and other
nonviolent drug-related offenses.

"The bill would also allow the courts the flexibility to place people
on probation or suspend their sentence," which would be "crucial for
first-time nonviolent offenders," Waters said.

Another goal of the legislation is to focus federal resources on
high-level drug dealers instead of peripheral people like street
dealers. Local and state prosecutors would handle lower-level cases,
such as those involving the street dealers or "mules," which is a
nickname for smugglers who carry the drugs into the United States.

Waters said treatment has been found to be more cost-effective in
controlling drug abuse than expanding prison systems.

"Each dollar invested in drug abuse prevention will save 15 dollars in
reduced health, justice and other societal costs," she said,
emphasizing the need to educate inmates who may be functionally illiterate.

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson told the conference Friday that
the public believes the United States is losing the war on drugs
because it's impossible to stop people from using drugs.

"The American public knows the drug war has been an abysmal failure,"
Anderson said.

A survey taken in March showed 75 percent of Americans believe the war
is being lost, he said.

"In 1999 alone," he said, "state, local and federal governments spent
$30 billion combatting illegal drugs."

On Saturday, Gov. Gary Johnson, an advocate of legalizing marijuana,
will address the conference, called "Drug Policies for the New
Millennium," which is sponsored by the Washington, D.C.-based
Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation.