Bill Increasing Mandatory Gun Crime Sentences Has Mixed Reception Among Dems

The state Senate will soon vote on a bill that establishes a mandatory minimum sentence of up to eight years for felons who commit a crime using a gun.

The bill passed on a voice vote in the Assembly this week, but it’s likely to face opposition in the Senate. Both Republican and Democratic backers of the bill say the law will help keep gun-toting criminals off the streets. But opponents like Milwaukee Democratic Sen. Lena Taylor say research shows mandatory minimums aren’t effective in deterring crime.

Taylor said she’s worried the law will fall the hardest on African-American men and increase racial disparity in the state’s prisons.

“We lead in the nation in incarceration of African-American men per capita so we don’t need more of the same. We need innovation,” she said.

Taylor also expressed concern that because the bill eliminates judicial discretion, it will prevent judges from making an informed decision about which offenders really deserve a longer sentence and which might benefit from a shorter period behind bars.

The law would sunset in five years allowing lawmakers to assess whether it really has reduced gun crimes. Nicole Porter of the Washington, D.C.-based sentencing project said policymakers shouldn’t count on it.

“What is effective in deterrence is the certainty of arrest or being held accountable, not necessarily severe or excessive prison terms,” said Porter. “Lawmakers may think it makes sense that lengthening prison terms will serve as a deterrent effect. We know that in practice that’s just not a pragmatic view.”

Still, one of the bill’s co-authors, Milwaukee Democratic Sen. Latonya Johnson, said she’s convinced it’s needed to protect public safety. She said it won’t result in increasing the prison population.

“We want to balance not unnecessarily sending people to prison with making sure that our streets are safe,” said Johnson.

Another Milwaukee Democrat, Sen. Evan Goyke, argued that a better long-term approach would be for the state to invest in community organizing efforts in the neighborhoods where gun crime is most prevalent.

“Investing in communities plagued by gun violence,” said Goyke, “is much more effective at deterring and reducing crime than any kind of incarceration that you can do.”