(passed by voter referendum) is the largest and toughest mandatory sentencing law in the United States. Since crime rates were falling before the law was passed,its effect on crime rates is debatable. The law does lengthen the average prison sentence and raise the average age of inmates, costing the state an additional $500 million a year (The Economist 2009e, 38). California has passed around one thousand Jaws mandating tougher sentencing and spends $49,000 per prisoner each year. Mandatory sentences are crude policy tools. In particular, they do not distinguish between levels of seriousness of different types of crime the federal minimum sentence for possession of a small amount of LSD is ten years, much more than for kidnapping,rape, or attempted murder. California has the worst recidivism rate in the nation (70% compared to the national average of 40%) ( The Economist 2009d,28).
The basic aim of the war on drugs has been to remove anyone involved in the drug trade from the street to the cells.Yet demand for drugs remains high in the inner cities,,and the history of the trade demonstrates that supply always meets demand Locking up a drug courier does not mean there is one less courier at large: only that an aspiring, often underage, one gets his chance.