09/11/2026
Mandatory minimum sentences are supposed to deter crime. They don't.
83% of Minnesota prosecutors interviewed by the Minnesota Justice Research Center (MNJRC) say mandatory minimums fail at deterrence. Why? Deterrence only works if people know and consider the penalty before they act, but most people don't even know these laws exist.
Since the 1980s, mandatory drug sentences have piled up while street drug prices stayed flat (they typically go up if enforcement reduces supply) and overdose deaths climbed. Meanwhile, the real cost of mandatory minimum sentencing lands on families. Loved ones are left to wade through lost income, unstable housing, and trauma that has nothing to do with "justice" or making things right.
A Minnesota task force spent a year studying this issue and just released actionable recommendations: ditching mandatory minimums for gun possession in favor of smarter sentencing tiers, removing non-violent drug offenses from the list, and giving both prosecutors and defendants a path to waive mandatory minimums in certain cases.
Read more on this in a blog post from the MNJRC, here. https://conta.cc/4r4c6cw
Citations: (Minnesota Department of Corrections & Wilder Research, 2026; National Research Council, 2010; Osler, 2026)
