The judge must choose a sentence from within the guideline range unless the court identifies an aggravating or mitigating circumstance that was not adequately considered by the Sentencing Commission. In mandatory minimum drug cases, judges can depart only upon motion from the government stating that a defendant has provided substantial assistance in the investigation or prosecution of another person. All guideline drug sentences are indirectly affected by the mandatory minimums.

"African-Americans now serve virtually as much time in prison for a drug offense (58.7 months) as whites do for a violent offense (61.7 months)" (Compendium 2004, 112).The Commission reported in 2004 that "[r]evising the crack cocaine thresholds would better reduce the [sentencing] gap than any other single policy change, and it would dramatically improve the fairness of the federal sentencing system" (USSC 2004, 132). As a result, the African-American

" (Mustard, 2001) I. Drug Sentencing Policy and the New Washington Administration It is stated in the work entitled: "Aspirations and Realism about Drug Sentencing Reform" that disparities in sentencing "continue to plague [the] Criminal Justice System. African-Americans and Hispanics are more than twice as likely as whites to be searched, arrested, or subdued with force when stopped by police. Disparities in drug sentencing laws, like the differential treatment of crack as

Disparities on the Sentencing of Convicted Children: The recent sentencing of convicted children and the high-contrast prosecution of the cases by the states is a demonstration of how broken the United States juvenile justice system has become in the recent past. Even though the state-to-state variations of the juvenile justice system have been in existence since the system was developed in 1899, the current disparities are so wide to an extent

Sentencing Mandatory minimum sentences A mandatory sentence is a decision setting made by the court where judicial discretion is controlled by law. Persons guilty of some crimes should be punished with at least minimum number of years in prison. Mandatory sentencing is believed to reduce crime rate and is fair to all criminals hence ensuring uniformity in sentencing. This sentencing has been effective since potential criminals and repeat offenders try to avoid

It is a matter of opinion as to whether this is actually accurate, but it does appear to be logical (Payne, 1997). This is an important analogy because of the fact that many individuals who are targeted for a particular reason will often attempt to find a disparity issue that they can use to insist that they have been treated unfairly. In drug use or sale issues, these people are