Positive Trends in State-Level Sentencing and Corrections Policy

November 2003 Positive Trends in State-Level Sentencing and Corrections Policy Incarceration rates are at an all-time high, and state budgets are more constrained than during any period since the beginning of the United States prison-construction boom in the late 1970s and 1980s. One of the driving forces behind these problems are mandatory minimum sentencing laws passed by the U.S. Congress and many state legislatures that force judges to give lengthy, fixed prison terms to those convicted of specific crimes, especially those that are drug-related, without concern for mitigating factors such as the degree to which . . .