TY  - BOOK
AU  - Caulkins,Jonathan P.
AU  - Rydell,C.Peter
AU  - Schwabe,William
AU  - Chiesa,James
ED  - RAND Drug Policy Research Center.
TI  - Mandatory minimum drug sentences: throwing away the key or the taxpayers' money? 
SN  - 0833024531 (alk. paper)
AV  - HV5825 .M329 1997
PY  - 1997///
CY  - Santa Monica, CA
PB  - RAND
KW  - Criminal justice, Administration of
KW  - United States
KW  - Mathematical models
KW  - Imprisonment
KW  - Economic aspects
KW  - Government policy
KW  - Mandatory sentences
KW  - Costs
KW  - Narcotic laws
KW  - Narcotics, Control of
KW  - Prison sentences
N1  - "Drug Policy Research Center."; Includes bibliographical references (p. 185-193); Also available on the internet via WWW in PDF format
N2  - Laws requiring minimum sentences for certain crimes have become increasingly popular, and the most frequently applied of these mandatory minimums are those pertaining to drug offenders. Proponents and opponents of mandatory minimums generally argue over issues of punishment, deterrence, justice, and fairness. The authors of the current study examine mandatory minimum drug sentences from the viewpoint of cost-effectiveness at achieving such national drug control objectives as reducing cocaine consumption and cocaine-related crime. They conduct their analysis with the help of mathematical models estimating the response of cocaine supply and demand to changes in levels of enforcement and treatment. The authors find that a million dollars spent extending sentences to mandatory minimum lengths would reduce cocaine consumption less than would a million dollars spent on the pre-mandatory-minimum mix of arrests, prosecution, and sentencing. Neither would reduce cocaine consumption or cocaine-related crime as much as spending a million dollars treating heavy users. These conclusions are robust to changes in various assumptions underlying the analysis
UR  - http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR827/
ER  -