BARE MINIMUM

I'm very pleased to see state Rep. Naishtat taking a stand against
current U.S. drug policy and our mass incarceration of nonviolent
offenders. Glen Castlebury's response, however, while accurate on a
local level, doesn't address the national picture.

While in Texas, nonviolent and first-time offenders are usually given
shorter sentences; states such as Michigan, New York and California
have mandatory minimum sentencing laws. Mandatory minimums remove
judges' discretion in sentencing entirely, forcing them to sentence
first-time offenders to as much as 20 years in prison for as little as
one day's supply of crack cocaine. Victims of these policies include
non-users as well as users, some of them impoverished young parents
who agreed to act as carriers in exchange for much-needed cash.

Though Texas is currently free from mandatory minimums, in other
states otherwise law-abiding citizens with single infractions on their
records are being sentenced to decades-long prison stays. You can read
their unfortunate stories at Families Against Mandatory Minimums,
http://www.famm.org/victims.html. These cases are a clear indication
of a justice system that is seriously in need of repair.

It's not just unlucky people in inner cities that are getting hurt. To
learn about how the drug war harms ordinary people like you, see our
web pamphlet "You don't have to be a user to hate the drug war" at
http://www.utexas.edu/students/dpftu/pam1.html .

Christine Hoff,
Plan II/English senior Drug Policy Forum of Texas,
University Chapter