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Model Legislation

Public Safety and Elections

Minimum-Mandatory Sentencing Act
Summary

Did you know the
NRA--the National
Rifle Association-was the corporate
co-chair in 2011?

This Act would establish minimum, mandatory incarceration sentences for drug offenses.
The severity of the penalties would be based solely on the type and amount of drug and
whether it is a repeat offense. There would be no distinction between possession and
manufacture, sale, or distribution. The minimum, mandatory sentence for a first offense
involving small amounts of a schedule I or II drug would be three days incarceration.
The Act would also require that an estimate be made of the cost of additional prison
construction entailed by enforcement of the Act, and would authorize a referendum on a
bond issue to cover that expected cost. The effective date of the sentencing component
of the Act would be tied to approval of the bond issue.

Model Legislation
{Title, enacting clause, etc.}
Section 1. {Title.} This Act shall be known and may be cited as the Minimum,
Mandatory Sentencing Act.

Section 2. {Definitions.} As used in this Act:
(A) "Bond" means the bonds authorized to be issued, or issued, under this Act.
(B) "Cost" means the expenses incurred in connection with the acquisition,
construction, and development of any property, the execution of any necessary
agreement or franchise, the procurement of engineering, inspection, planning, legal,
financial, or other professional services, the issuance of bonds and any interest thereon,
and the administrative, operating, and other expenses incident to acquiring additional
correctional facility space to house inmates who, in the absence of this Act, would not
have been incarcerated.
(C) "Distribution" means to transfer or attempt to transfer a substance from one person
to another.
(D) "Fund" means the Correctional Facilities Construction Fund.

ALEC’s’Corporate Board
--in recent past or present

• AT&T Services, Inc.
• centerpoint360
• UPS
• Bayer Corporation
• GlaxoSmithKline
• Energy Future Holdings
• Johnson & Johnson
• Coca-Cola Company
• PhRMA
• Kraft Foods, Inc.
• Coca-Cola Co.
• Pfizer Inc.
• Reed Elsevier, Inc.
• DIAGEO
• Peabody Energy
• Intuit, Inc.
• Koch Industries, Inc.
• ExxonMobil
• Verizon
• Reynolds American Inc.
• Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
• Salt River Project
• Altria Client Services, Inc.
• American Bail Coalition
• State Farm Insurance
For more on these corporations,
search at www.SourceWatch.org.

(E) "Manufacture" means the production, preparation, propagation, compounding,
conversion, or processing of a controlled substance, either directly or indirectly or by
extraction from other substances of natural origin, or independently by means of
chemical synthesis, or by a combination of extraction and chemical synthesis, and
includes any packaging or repackaging or labeling or relabeling of its containers.
(F) "Possession" means (insert definition).

Section 3. {Manufacture, distribution, or possession of controlled
substances.}
Except as authorized by law, it is unlawful for any person knowingly or intentionally to
manufacture, distribute, or possess any controlled substance as defined by [cite state
controlled substance act].
(A) In addition to any other sentence authorized by law, persons convicted of a violation
of this section involving any amount of a schedule I or II controlled substance as defined
by [cite state controlled substance act] or more than 50 grams of marijuana shall be
subject to the following penalties:
(1) For persons for whom this is the first controlled substance conviction:
(a) if the quantity for which the person is convicted is less than 5 grams of cocaine, 3
grams of heroin, 200 grams of marijuana, etc., a mandatory term of incarceration in a
state correctional facility of not less than three days and not more than three years and
a fine of up to $15,000.
(b) if the quantity for which the person is convicted is more than 5 grams but less than
28 grams of cocaine, more than 3 grams but less than 14 grams of heroin, more than
200 grams but less than 5 kilograms of marijuana, etc., a mandatory term of
incarceration in a state correctional facility of not less than three years and not more
than five years and a fine of up to $50,000.
(c) if the quantity for which the person is convicted is more than 28 grams but less than

Exposed

By the Center for
Media and Democracy
www.prwatch.org

200 grams of cocaine, more than 14 grams but less than 100 grams of heroin, more
than 5 kilograms but less than 100 kilograms of marijuana, etc., a mandatory term of
incarceration in a state correctional facility of not less than five years and not more than
ten years and a fine of up to $100,000.
(d) if the quantity for which the person is convicted is more than 200 grams of cocaine,
more than 100 grams of heroin, more than 100 kilograms of marijuana, etc., a
mandatory term of incarceration in a state correctional facility of not less than 10 years
and not more than 20 years and a fine of up to $300,000.
(2) For persons for whom this is the second or subsequent controlled substance
conviction:
(a) if the quantity for which the person is convicted is [repeat language of Subparagraph
(a) of Paragraph (1) of this Subsection], a mandatory term of incarceration in a state
correctional facility of not less than one year and not more than five years and a fine of
up to $50,000.
(b) if the quantity for which the person is convicted is [repeat language of
Subparagraph (b) of Paragraph (1) of this subsection], a mandatory term of
incarceration in a state correctional facility of not less than five years and not more than
ten years and a fine of up to $100,000.
(c) if the quantity for which the person is convicted is [repeat language of Subparagraph
(c) of Paragraph (1) of this Subsection], a mandatory term of incarceration of not less
than 10 years and not more than 20 years and a fine of up to $300,000.
(d) if the quantity for which the person is convicted is [repeat language of
Subparagraph (d) of Paragraph (1) of this Subsection], a mandatory term of
incarceration of not less than 20 years and not more than life and a fine of up to
$500,000.
(B) In addition to any other penalty authorized by law, persons convicted of a violation of
this section involving any schedule III, IV, or controlled substance as defined by [cite
state controlled substance act] or less than 50 grams of marijuana shall be subject to
the following penalties:
(1) for persons for whom this is the first controlled substance conviction, a mandatory
term of incarceration in a state correctional facility of not more than three years and a
fine of up to $15,000.
(2) for persons for whom this is a second or subsequent controlled substance conviction,
a mandatory term of incarceration in a state correction facility of not less than three
years and not more than five years and a fine of up to $50,000.

Section 4. {Suspension of sentence.}
(A) Except as provided in Subsection (B) of this Section, adjudication of guilt or
imposition of sentence shall not be suspended, probated, furloughed, deferred, or
withheld prior to serving the minimum sentence.
(B) The district attorney may move the sentencing court to impose a reduced or
suspended sentence upon any person who is convicted of a violation of [cite state
controlled substance act] and who provides substantial assistance in the identification,
arrest, or conviction of any of his accomplices, accessories, co-conspirators, or principals.
The judge hearing the motion may impose a reduced or suspended sentence if he finds
that the defendant has rendered such substantial assistance.

Section 5. {Cost estimate.} The Department of [insert appropriate department]

shall conduct an estimate of the cost of this Act, as defined in Subsection (B) of Section
2.

Section 6. {Bond issue.} Bonds of the State of [insert state] are authorized to be
issued in the aggregate amount specified in Section 5.

(A) The bonds authorized under this Act shall be serial bonds, term bonds, or a
combination thereof, and shall be direct obligations of the state of [insert state], shall be
known as "Correctional Facilities Construction Bonds," and shall recite that they are
issued for the purposes set forth in Section 5.
(B) The proceeds from the sale of the bonds shall be deposited in the "Correctional
Facilities Construction Fund." The moneys in the fund are specifically dedicated and shall
be applied to the cost of the purposes set forth in Section 5, and all such monies shall be
appropriated for those purposes by the legislature. Not less than 25 percent of the
amount in the Fund shall be allocated for county correctional facilities. The bonds maybe
issued notwithstanding that the legislature shall not have then adopted an act making
specific appropriation of the monies in the fund.
(C) [Bond prices, terms and interest rates, bond issuing, refunding and refinancing
procedures, and fund investment and management procedures].

Section 7. {Voter referendum.} Section 6 of this Act shall be submitted to the
people for approval at the general election to be held on [insert date].

Section 8. {Severability clause.}
Section 9. {Repealer clause.}
Section 10. {Effective date.} Sections 5, 6, and 7 of this Act shall take effect

immediately upon enactment, and the remainder of the Act shall take effect on the 60th
day after passage of the Correctional Facilities Construction referendum required under
Section 7.

ALEC's Sourcebook of American State Legislation 1995
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Center for Media
and Democracy's
quick summary

This bill limits judicial discretion in sentencing and perpetuates the "War on Drugs" that has helped America become
the country with the highest incarceration rate in the world. Longer sentences have done nothing to significantly
"deter" demand for and use of drugs and trafficking (addiction counseling, social intervention and other rehabilitative
measures have proven more successful), but the sentencing policies have drastically increased the number of
persons incarcerated. Longer prison sentences, it should be noted, increase the profits of the Corrections
Corporation of America, a member of the Executive Committee of ALEC's Public Safety & Elections Task Force.