Abstract
The sharp increase in drug-related crimes on the streets of our cities in the past few years has made the phrase and order a household refrain. Every candidate running for public office promises to curb street crime 1 by restoring and order in the community. To most of these public office seekers, as well as those already in office, the key to such restoration is greatly increased prison terms, including life sentences, for those involved in the illegal sale of narcotics and for those illegal narcotics users who commit violent crimes. And the crux of these harsh new proposals is that such prison terms should be mandatory. In addition, these proposals would deny persons convicted of narcotics offenses the usual opportunity for parole.2 Some state legislative proposals have gone so far as to prohibit plea bargaining in such cases.' In short, retribution and deterrence, a theory of severe mandatory punishment for law violators, as opposed to any other theory or program for curbing the sale of drugs and decreasing drug-related crimes, has seized the day. The only certain consequence of this oversimplified approach to a multifaceted problem is that the judge alone, of all those involved in the administration of criminal justice, would be entirely stripped of his or her discretion in dealing with narcotics sellers and narcotics-related offenders.4
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