MANDATORY SENTENCING JUDGES SHOULD HAVE DISCRETION WHEN PUNISHING
FIRST-TIME DRUG OFFENDERS

After reading a letter from Tina Hughes of Spartanburg, expressing her
feelings toward manda-tory sentencing laws for first-time drug offenders, I
felt compelled to speak out. I agree with her 100 percent.

I have a family member who was sentenced to a mandatory sentence of 18
years for a first-time drug offense. What appalls me the most is when I
open the newspaper and read articles in which some rapists, child molesters
and murderers get a lesser sentence.

I am not for drugs. I do feel that a first-time drug offender deserves a
chance to rectify his or her mistake. Repeat offenders should then have to
suffer the consequences of these mandatory laws. If they are drug abusers,
I feel they need treatment instead of years of incarceration.

The prisons are filling up with these offenders, and the state is seeking
ways to cut the budget. We need to consider eliminating these mandatory
sentences, thus saving our state millions of dollars.

I do not wish on anyone the pain that a family goes through when you have a
loved one incarcerated, but I do ask that the lawmakers of South Carolina
reconsider these laws and put the sentencing phase back into our judges' hands.