Get Informed Part V: Mandatory Minimums Don't Work - Aug 5, 2020

Join us on Aug 5th at 6:30PM on Facebook Live (@JusticeForwardVa) for Part 5: Mandatory Minimums Don't Work.

Mandatory minimums don't work. For any purpose. Except maybe coercing innocent people to plead guilty, or winning elections (in the 1990s, at least). They don't reduce crime rates, they don't reduce recidivism rates, they don't make the court process more efficient, they aren't better for victims, and they don't even manage to hold people accountable for the crimes they actually committed.

On August 5, join Vernida R. Chaney (President, NoVa Black Attorneys Assoc.), national justice reform expert Premal Dharia (Defender Impact Initiative), Dr. Ashley Nellis (The Sentencing Project), and Justice Forward's own Andy Elders for an expert panel on why mandatory minimums don't work, and why they ought to be repealed -- ALL of them, not just those applicable to nonviolent offenses.

This is the fifth installment in Justice Forward's "Get Informed About Police Reform" explainer series, which is intended to help non-lawyers and other laypeople better understand what meaningful police reform looks like in Virginia, and what the General Assembly ought to accomplish during the special session in August. Leadership in both the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates have made clear that repealing mandatory minimums is a top priority, and we hope to support them in their efforts -- particularly as opponents push back and argue, without evidence, that mandatory minimums for certain conduct (e.g. violent offenses) should remain on the books.

We'll be live on Facebook on August 5, and the event will also be available as a recording on our Facebook page and on our YouTube channel.

For more information about mandatory minimums, check out our blog post on mandatory minimums.