'MANDATORY MINIMUM' LAW NEEDED BALANCE, FAIRNESS

Michigan's law requiring mandatory minimum prison sentences for drug
offenses would have been a good law had it done what it was supposed to -
target drug king pins.

But it didn't.

Instead, many of those sentenced under the law were non-violent, low-level
drug couriers and addicts who ended up serving long prison sentences at a
great cost to taxpayers.

Instead, it contributed to the state's prison overcrowding problem.

Instead, it made it impossible for judges to consider extenuating
circumstances and hand down sentences that fit the crime.

Former Gov. William Milliken signed the mandatory drug minimum sentence into
law in 1978 at a time when the state was grappling with a growing narcotics
trade problem. By 1998, one of every five people ordered to state prison
were sentenced for a drug offense.

The state Legislature's passage last week of three sentencing reform bills
- -House Bills 5394, 5395 and 650 - corrects a serious injustice in our
criminal justice system.

The legislation eliminates most mandatory minimum sentences and
re-establishes sentencing guidelines for drug crimes.

For the last 24 years, Michigan has had the harshest mandatory drug
sentencing laws in the United States. They included the "650 Lifer Law,"
which mandated life in prison without parole for offenders convicted of
delivery of more than 650 grams of heroin or cocaine. The "lifer law" was
modified in 1998, but it didn't touch other mandatory sentences established
for lesser offices.

In 1987, the Legislature passed a mandatory "consecutive" law that required
drug sentences to be served consecutively to any term of imprisonment for
another felony. In most serious crimes, sentences for various felony charges
generally are served concurrently, or at the same time.

Thanks to intensive lobbying by Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a
nonprofit that spearheaded the drive for reform, the package of bills
enjoyed bipartisan support in the Legislature.

The Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan also endorsed the bills.

Even Milliken campaigned for the reforms, calling the law "the worst mistake
of my career" because it was "an overly punishing and cruel response that
gave no discretion to a sentencing judge, even for extenuating
circumstances."

It's probably also no accident that the passage of the reform measures came
at the same time the Legislature was trying to find places to cut the state
budget. Most state departments have had to cut 2.5 percent from their
budgets, but the Department of Corrections could trim only 1 percent from
its $1.7 billion budget.

Under the new legislation, serious drug offenders would still receive tough
sentences - up to life - but judges now will be able to impose sentences
based on a range of factors in each case rather than the amount of the drug
involved. The new legislation also replaces lifetime probation for the
lowest-level offenders with a five-year probationary period and permits
earlier parole for some prisoners, at the discretion of the parole board.
Currently, more than 4,000 ex-cons must report to state probation officers
for the rest of their lives.

The 1978 law was aimed at the right culprits - the drug lords - but it
missed the target completely. It has been a costly failure in our war on
drugs. It's about time we corrected the injustice.