Congresswoman Maxine Waters Holds Panel Discussion on Mandatory Minimum Sentencing at 39th Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference
Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) today hosted a panel discussion on the impact of mandatory minimum sentencing – the first of three panels that she is holding during the 39th Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference (ALC). Though Congresswoman Waters has convened an ALC panel on this topic in previous years, she noted the combined importance of a new Administration, a Congress that is moving to pass critical legislation, and sustained and powerful advocacy by legislative, community and academic leaders as reasons why the United States is closer than ever to ending mandatory minimum sentencing for good.
"We will need your help – each of you in this room – to work with your organizations and communities to make sure your Representatives and Senators in Congress understand how important it is to pass good bills that will end the injustice of mandatory minimum sentences," said Congresswoman Waters. "We continue to move toward that goal, but it will take all of our strength to get there. I'm optimistic because of the bills that are already moving in Congress and the leadership that we have on this issue throughout the country, represented right here by the people on this esteemed panel and in our audience."
This summer the House Judiciary Committee, on which Congresswoman Waters serves, passed the Fairness in Cocaine Sentencing Act, a major step toward ending mandatory minimum sentencing. And just last week the American Bar Association endorsed the Major Drug Trafficking Prosecution Act, a bill Congresswoman Waters has introduced each legislative session over the last decade. Her legislation would focus law enforcement efforts on the top traffickers that facilitate the drug trade. In its endorsement letter the ABA stated that Congresswoman Waters' "much-needed legislation would be a significant step by Congress to address unfairness in the sentencing process and to reduce racial disparities in the federal justice system."
During the panel, Congresswoman Waters introduced football great Jim Brown, who was in the audience and whose organization Amer-I-Can teaches individuals self-determination and empowers them to rise above societal ills. "Jim Brown is a legend both on and off the football field," said Congresswoman Waters. "He and his organization Amer-I-Can have been instrumental in providing an outlet for those seeking to better their own lives and in advocating for an end to mandatory minimum sentencing." Jim Brown responded, "My work in Watts, California grew out of the work that Congresswoman Waters did. Like a Mother Theresa of Watts, as a single individual, she made a powerful impact on her community."
Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree closed out the panel by stressing the need to work with what he called the 5 branches of government: the legislature; the judiciary; the executive branch; the fourth estate (the media); and the community. He also said the messaging surrounding this issue needs to change because elimination of mandatory minimum sentences is "not soft on crime, it's smart on punishment."
Congresswoman Waters was joined by an esteemed panel that included: Kemba Smith, a victim of federal mandatory minimum sentencing whose sentence was commuted and who has been described as a "poster child" of the injustices of mandatory minimum sentences; Charles Ogletree, Harvard Law School Jesse Climenko Professor of Law and Executive Director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice; Judge Terry Hatter, U.S. District Court, Central District of California; Barry Boss, an attorney who co-chairs the ABA's Criminal Justice Section Sentencing Committee and is a former co-chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission's Practitioners Advisory Group; Nkechi Taifa, a Senior Policy Analyst for the Open Society Institute and Open Society Policy Center; Julie Stewart, President and Founder of Families Against Mandatory Minimums; and Barbara R. Arnwine, Executive Director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
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