On Twitter you can vote for which turkey Trump should pardon: Peas or Carrots. But once he is done presiding over the pardoning of feathery Thanksgiving centerpieces, both of which are guaranteed life on a farm anyway, the president should turn his attention to pardoning people, specifically nonviolent drug offenders serving long mandatory sentences in federal prison.
As many states have reformed sentencing laws, pragmatically putting more thought into who should be spending long stretches of time behind bars, federal mandatory sentences haven’t changed much. That means that there are many nonviolent federal prisoners serving long sentences.
As the U.S. Sentencing Commission noted in its 2017 report, federal mandatory minimum penalties for drug offenses “continued to result in long sentences in the federal system” and those sentences “continued to have a significant impact on the size and composition of the federal prison population.” The commission also found that current reforms do not “fully ameliorate the impact of drug mandatory minimum penalties on relatively low-level offenders.”
In 2015, research by Pew Charitable Trusts found that “those sentenced for relatively minor roles represented the biggest share of federal drug offenders,” and the small time street deals made up almost one-fifth of all of federal drug offenders. Worse, that same report found that sentences did not always match the crimes, meaning that high-level traffickers often ended up with shorter sentences than some of those they managed.
Federal mandatory minimum laws have set a low bar for the amount of drugs that trigger mandatory minimums. Those provisions, combined with conspiracy charges and the inclusion of nondrug ingredients in the weight of drugs calculated for sentencing purposes, means that the intent of mandatory minimums is often not reflected in practice.
With talk of pardoning and growing momentum for criminal justice reform, Trump would do well to put families and communities separated by harsh laws back together for the holidays.
Of course, better than just pardoning people is actual criminal justice reform. Here, the First Step Act that passed the House with flying colors and is now before the Senate is a good step reducing mandatory minimums and gives judges more discretion.
For now, though, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., decides if he will give the Senate a chance to vote on the bill, Trump can pardon more than turkeys and truly make a difference in the lives of individuals and their families while sending a clear message on his support for reforms.
[Read more: Lindsey Graham, Rand Paul bullish on the Senate passing criminal justice reform]
