I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3800 
To eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for all drug offenses. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 14, 2017 
Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California (for herself, Ms. NORTON, Mr. POCAN, Ms. 
LEE, and Mr. ELLISON) introduced the following bill; which was referred 
to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on 
Energy and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within 
the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for all drug 
offenses. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Mandatory Minimum 
Reform Act of 2017’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) Mandatory minimum sentences are statu-
torily prescribed terms of imprisonment that auto-
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matically attach upon conviction of certain criminal 
conduct, often pertaining to drug offenses. Absent 
very narrow criteria for relief, a sentencing judge is 
powerless to mandate a term of imprisonment below 
the mandatory minimum. Mandatory minimum sen-
tences for drug offenses rely solely upon the weight 
of the substance as a proxy for the defendant’s role 
and degree of involvement. 
(2) In the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, and 
at the height of the public concern over crack co-
caine, Congress acted hastily, without sufficient 
hearings, and enacted hard line penalties that tar-
geted low-level drug offenders. These penalties in-
cluded new, long mandatory minimum sentences for 
such offenders. 
(3) According to the Bureau of Prisons, in 
1986, when the new drug law containing lengthy 
mandatory minimum sentences passed, the prison 
population was 36,000. Today, the Federal prison 
population is over 187,000 prisoners, up over 400 
percent in 31 years. 
(4) According to the Bureau of Prisons, the av-
erage cost to keep one prisoner in Federal prison for 
the fiscal year of 2015 was $31,977.65, which 
equates to $87.61 per day. 
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(5) Annual spending on the Federal prison sys-
tem rose by over 600 percent, from roughly 
$966,000,000 to more than $6.9 billion in inflation- 
adjusted dollars, between 1980 and 2015. 
(6) According to the U.S. Sentencing Commis-
sion, between 1995 and 2010, over 400,000 drug of-
fenders were sentenced under Federal law; of these, 
almost 250,000 (61 percent) received mandatory 
minimum sentences. 
(7) According to the U.S. Sentencing Commis-
sion, drug offenders released from prison in 1986 
who had been sentenced before the adoption of man-
datory sentences and sentencing guidelines had 
served an average of 22 months in prison. In fiscal 
year 2016, the average sentence for drug offenders 
subject to a mandatory minimum penalty at sen-
tencing was more than 10 years (with relief, 64 
months). 
(8) In fiscal year 2016, many of those offenders 
convicted of an offense carrying a mandatory min-
imum sentence were nonviolent or low-level offend-
ers. According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, 
only 28.7 percent of convictions for drug trafficking 
offenses carrying a mandatory minimum penalty in-
volved the use of a weapon, violence or threats of vi-
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olence. Only 11.7 percent of offenders convicted of 
such offenses played a leadership role. 
(9) Mandatory minimum sentences have histori-
cally been shown to have a disproportionate impact 
on African Americans. The United States Sen-
tencing Commission, in a 15-year overview of the 
Federal sentencing system, concluded that ‘‘manda-
tory penalty statutes are used inconsistently’’ and 
disproportionately affect African-American defend-
ants. According to another United States Sentencing 
Commission report, in fiscal year 2016, of the 8,342 
offenders who were subject to a Federal mandatory 
minimum penalty at sentencing, Black offenders 
were the largest group, representing 35.5 percent, 
followed by White offenders, who represented 31.1 
percent, and Hispanic offenders, who represented 
30.9 percent. 
(10) According to the U.S. Sentencing Commis-
sion, between 1994 and 2003, the average time 
served by African Americans for a drug offense in-
creased by 62 percent, compared to a 17-percent in-
crease among White drug defendants. 
(11) According to the Substance Abuse and 
Mental Health Services Administration, surveys have 
documented that drug use is roughly consistent 
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across racial and ethnic groups. While there is less 
data available regarding drug sellers, research from 
the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the 
National Institute of Justice has found that drug 
users generally buy drugs from someone of their own 
racial or ethnic background. But, according to the 
U.S. Sentencing Commission, about 74.4 percent of 
all drug offenders sentenced in 2016 were African 
American and Hispanic, many of whom are low-level 
offenders. 
(12) As a result of Federal prosecutors’ focus 
on low-level drug offenders, the overwhelming major-
ity of individuals subject to the heightened crack co-
caine penalties are African American. According to 
the U.S. Sentencing Commission, in fiscal year 
2016, of those offenders sentenced on Federal crack 
cocaine charges, only 5.5 percent were White, while 
82.6 percent and 11.4 percent were African Amer-
ican and Hispanic, respectively. 
(13) According to the U.S. Census, African 
Americans comprise 13.3 percent of the U.S. popu-
lation, but according to the U.S. Sentencing Com-
mission, in fiscal year 2016, African Americans 
made up about 23.6 percent of all Federal drug con-
victions. 
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(14) According to the Bureau of Justice Statis-
tics of the Department of Justice, by 2003, African 
Americans, on average, now serve almost as much 
time in Federal prison for a drug offense (58.7 
months) as Whites do for a violent offense (61.7 
months). 
(15) According to the U.S. Sentencing Commis-
sion, in fiscal year 2016, about 34.6 percent of 
women entering Federal prison did so for a drug of-
fense. Linking drug quantity with punishment sever-
ity has had a particularly profound impact on 
women, who are historically more likely to play pe-
ripheral roles in a drug enterprise than men. How-
ever, because prosecutors can attach drug quantities 
to an individual regardless of the level of a defend-
ant’s participation in the charged offense, women 
have been exposed to increasingly punitive sentences. 
(16) Low-level and mid-level drug offenders can 
be adequately prosecuted by the States and punished 
or supervised in treatment as appropriate. 
(17) Congress has an obligation to taxpayers to 
use sentencing policies that are cost-effective and in-
crease public safety, in addition to establishing a 
criminal justice system that is fair, efficient, and 
provides just sentences for offenders. Mandatory 
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