Summary- A new law has been passed by Congress called the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, which will reduce sentencing disparity to 18 to 1. This act was passed due to the numerous controversies associated with the thousands of nonviolent criminals who ended up with sentences that were "extreme" and the disparity was viewed as racially tinged as well. When the first drug law was passed, back in 1980, cocaine use and crimes associated with the drug were through the roof. This is apparently due to the turf wars once the drug first hit the streets. Now, over 12,000 inmates will have their sentences cut from 13 years, to an average of 3 years. The main objective of this law is to save money; Michael Nachmanoff states the new rule "will save tens of millions of dollars, and hopefully allow the bureau of prisons to use those beds to house more dangerous people."
My Opinion?- Personally, I believe this is extremely outrageous. Just because these criminals have not committed a "severe" crime and are not the most "dangerous" people, does not mean they should be released from prison by such a significant difference or even released early at all. Drugs, in my mind, are substances that severely debilitate an individual's ability to cope with society and benefit to it at all for that matter. These people's emotions and actions are completely influenced with drugs, especially cocaine; cocaine is not pot or weed, it is considered the most addictive drug and causes acute euphoria. Euphoria can cause a person to commit many dangerous actions either towards themselves or to others. Having these people on the streets, whether they've committed a crime or not, is extremely dangerous to society because at any moment, these individuals can snap, due to the effects of drugs on their body. These people benefit very little if anything to society so why should they be let go from prison? Passing this law will risk the safety of those around these drug addicts. I have never heard of one situation where a drug addict, especially one addicted to cocaine, has ever offered any positive influences on society. In fact, they provide negative influences to those around them, creating a more dangerous, pandemonium society. This law, in my opinion, is completely unnecessary and quite honestly, crazy. Yes, I am well aware that it costs the government myriads of money to keep these people in jail, but rather that, than have them roaming the streets, threatening society. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/us/terms-for-crack-cocaine-reduced-freeing-prisoners.html?_r=1&ref=us
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