John Oliver On Mandatory Minimums: “They Ruin Lives.”

During the 1980s and 90s, the U.S. Congress passed mandatory minimums sentencing laws, which require judges to give fixed prison sentences to specific crimes, regardless of the circumstances of the crime. Mandatory minimums, which are mostly common for drug related crimes, has resulted in over-capacity of minor offenders in prison populations. John Oliver talks about the need for reform on mandatory minimums on HBO’s Last Week Tonight by highlighting cases of prisoners who are serving long prison sentences for minor crimes.

JOHN OLIVER ON MANDATORY MINIMUMS

The talk show host cites The Washington Post, which reports that, “Since 1980, the number of inmates behind bars has quadrupled. 1 out of every 100 adults is locked up.” Oliver then talks about a prisoner, Kevin Ott, who is currently serving life in Oklahoma for possession of three ounces of methamphetamine. “They’re treating him likes he’s Season Five Walter White, when he’s barely Episode One Jesse Pinkman,” Oliver jokes.

Oliver discusses that most of the mandatory minimums drug laws were enforced when the U.S. were in the middle of a “full fledged anti-drug hysteria,” which resulted in uniting the Democratic and Republican parties. “By early 1994, 31 states and D.C. had mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences. They united people from either side of the aisle faster than playing the Chicken Dance at a wedding,” the TV host says.

Oliver says that nowadays there are more government officials against mandatory minimums, including Barack Obama, Ted Cruz and Kevin Ring, who was one of the congressional staffer that helped write the laws. “Prison sentences are a lot like penises,” Oliver jokes. “If they’re used correctly, even a short one can do the trick.” Oliver argues that mandatory minimum laws have done more harm then good particularly to minorities. “In 2010, nearly three quarters of federal drug offenders sentenced under mandatory minimums were Black or Hispanic.”

Some mandatory minimum laws have been reduced at the federal level and 29 states have taken the initiative to roll back mandatory sentences since 2000 — but those reforms have not been made retroactive. “Thousands of people are currently stuck in prisons for crimes that would carry far shorter sentences if they committed them just a few years later,” Oliver says. “Almost everyone has agreed that mandatory minimums laws were a mistake. And we cannot have a system where people are continuing to pay for that mistake — and where, perhaps their best chance of getting out of a prison that they should no longer be in, is somehow finding a turkey costume and hanging around the f—— White House at Thanksgiving.”