Political Quotes

“It is not true. It is simply inaccurate. So those who insist that our exploding Federal prison population somehow has nothing to do with the explosive use of mandatory minimum prison sentences within our Federal system are simply wrong. In its 2011 report, the U.S. Sentencing Commission concluded that mandatory minimums have had ``a significant impact on the Federal prison population.'' From 1995 through 2010, the number of Federal prisoners serving a mandatory minimum sentence grew from 29,603 to 75,579. That is a 155- percent increase. It represents over one-third of all Federal prisoners. As of December 2014, over 59 percent of the 210,567 Federal inmates-- 125,000 inmates over all--had been convicted of an offense carrying a mandatory minimum. Of these, 74.3 percent, which represents 91,806 inmates, were required to serve that mandatory minimum sentence or more. In 2013, 62.1 percent of all drug offenders were convicted of an offense carrying a mandatory minimum. Over 60 percent of them received no safety valve relief and 70 percent of them did not receive relief for cooperating with authorities. Some have argued that those serving sentences for nonviolent drug offenses have long and violent criminal histories, but sentencing commission data shows this is inaccurate.…”