Congress to change automatic prison terms

Democrats, now controlling Congress, are looking again at the automatic sentences. These automatic prison terms, also referred to as mandatory minimal sentences, leaves little discretion to the judge and result in ineffective and harsh sentences. Congress determines what the mandatory minimum sentences will be, and unfortunately the sentences decided upon often result in unfair prison terms for low-level offenders. Judges have long been critical of the terms that were made to curtail drug trade in 1986. Judges hope that the combined democratic leadership and Republican support of change will create great change. The democratic leader of the House Judiciary Committee, John Conyers Jr. has long been against mandatory minimum sentences especially in the cases of crack versus powder cocaine. The punishment of low-level offenders, due to mandatory minimum sentences fills up prisons and as Judge Reggie B. Walton of Federal District Court in D.C. stated causes “a disservice not just to individuals but to society at large”.





Before trial by jury was assured to Americans by the Bill of Rights, events of unfair trials occurred. For example, The Salem Witchcraft trials occurred in Salem Massachusetts in 1692. A group of girls, influenced by stories of a slave Tituba, spread rumors of witch craft. People were forced into false confessions of witch craft. The judges’ verdicts were merely decided by one’s word against another person’s. In the end, twenty people were killed and over one hundred and fifty people were imprisoned.