Report on Mandatory Sentences - Law Reform Commission

offences became extremely unpopular. 242 In response, Congress passed the Comprehensive Drug
Abuse Prevention and Control Act 1970 which repealed virtually all of the mandatory sentencing
provisions applicable to drugs offences. 243
2.113 It has been noted, however, that this did not reflect a general policy disfavouring mandatory
sentencing as, in the same year, mandatory sentencing provisions were enacted for certain offences
involving firearms and explosives. 244 This might have been due to the fact that the late 1960s and early
1970s bore witness to diminishing support for the rehabilitative model of imprisonment and a
corresponding renewal of interest in mandatory sentences. 245 Under the rehabilitative model, the Parole
Board, on the basis of an assessment of the offender’s level of rehabilitation, had ultimate discretion
regarding the grant of release. Critics observed that, as a consequence, many offenders deemed not to
have been sufficiently rehabilitated, served sentences that were disproportionately long and/or disparate
by comparison to the sentences served by others convicted of the same or similar offences. In addition,
they observed that the efficacy of rehabilitative treatments was in doubt and that it was thus unfair to
make release dependent on rehabilitation. In an effort to address these issues, legislators sought to
make sentencing more structured by means of mandatory sentencing provisions, among other
initiatives. 246
2.114 On the state level, this trend began in New York with the enactment of the Rockefeller Drug Laws
in 1973. This legislation prescribed a mandatory life sentence for the sale or possession of small
amounts of narcotic drugs along with mandatory minimum terms of imprisonment ranging from one to 25
years. 247 In 1978, Michigan enacted harsh mandatory sentences for drugs offences, including the
notorious “650 Lifer Law”. 248 This law prescribed a mandatory life sentence without parole for offenders
convicted of delivering over 650 grammes of heroin or cocaine. 249 By 1983, 49 out of 50 states had
enacted similar mandatory sentencing provisions.
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Mascharka “Mandatory Minimum Sentences: Exemplifying the Law of Unintended Consequences” (2001)
Florida State University Law Review 935 at 939; <strong>Report</strong> to Congress: Mandatory Minimum Penalties in the
Federal Criminal Justice System (United States Sentencing Commission, 2011) at 22; Special <strong>Report</strong> to
Congress: Mandatory Minimum Penalties in the Federal Criminal Justice System (United States Sentencing
Commission, 1991) at Chapter 2; and Lutjen “Culpability and Sentencing under Mandatory Minimums and the
Federal Sentencing Guidelines: The Punishment no longer fits the Crime” (1996) 10 Notre Dame JL Ethics &
Pub Pol’y 389 at 396. See also: Glick “Mandatory Sentencing: The Politics of the New Criminal Justice”
(1979) 43 Fed Probation 3.
See also: Glick “Mandatory Sentencing: The Politics of the New Criminal Justice” (1979) 43 Fed Probation 3.
<strong>Report</strong> to Congress: mandatory Minimum Penalties in the Federal Criminal Justice System (United States
Sentencing Commission, 2011) at 23.
Glick “Mandatory Sentencing: The Politics of the New Criminal Justice System” (1979) 43 Fed Probation 3 at
3-6; Zimring “Sentencing Reform in the States: Some Sobering Lessons from the 1970s” (1981-1982) 2 N Ill U
L Rev 1 at 2-4; and Special <strong>Report</strong> to Congress: Mandatory Minimum Penalties in the Federal Criminal Justice
System (United States Sentencing Commission, 1991) at Chapter 2.
Special <strong>Report</strong> to Congress: Mandatory Minimum Penalties in the Federal Criminal Justice System (United
States Sentencing Commission, 1991) at Chapter 2.
Bayer “The Effects of the 1973 Drug Laws on the New York State Courts: A Comment” (1976) 5
Contemporary Drug Problems 631 at 631-632; and Glanville “Drug Abuse, Law Abuse, and the Eighth
Amendment: New York’s 1973 Drug Legislation and the Prohibition against Cruel and Unusual Punishment”
(1974-1975) 60 Cornell L Rev 638 at 639.
See: “Background on Michigan mandatory minimum drug law reforms”. Available at:
www.famm.org/state/Michigan.aspx [Last accessed: 22 May 2013].
In 1987, Michigan introduced mandatory consecutive sentencing provisions which provided that a sentence for
a drug offence had to be served consecutively to any other sentence being served for a felony. See:
www.famm.org/state/Michigan.aspx [Last accessed: 22 May 2013].
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