individuals wound up in America’s jails and prisons. This is also compounded by how we have shifted our 
views on the mentally ill within the courts and justice system. While insanity is a defense that is used in 
court, it is rare (roughly 1% of cases), and even more rarely does it conclude in success. This shift occurred 
within our understanding of guilt surrounding mental illness. In the past, an individual would be held not 
guilty by reason of insanity. However, this shifted to guilty, but legally insane. The guilt would be grounds 
to still incarcerated individuals. Changes in policy like this also contributed to the increase in offenders in 
the 1980s. 
Get Tough Policies 
Another reason for the large scale increases can be found in our changes to policies surrounding sentences 
and sentence lengths. Get tough policies flourished in the latter half of the 1980s and into the 1990s. 
This included truth in sentencing legislation three-strikes policies, and drug crime minimums. Truth in 
sentencing, also known as the 85% rule, is where mandatory minimums of sentences would be forced to 
be served by incarcerated individuals. Thus if an individual was sentenced to prison, a mandatory minimum 
of 85% of the sentence would have to be served before the individual was eligible for release (parole). This 
added to the average length of sentences served in American prisons, which meant that individuals were not 
being released as early as in prior years. Thus, as more individuals were coming in due to increases in other 
legislation, there were already more people in the prisons. 
Three strikes policies were enacted in many States. In 1993, Washington overwhelmingly passed (75% 
voted yes) to approve initiative 593 
1 This policy increased sentence lengths for 40 felonies, which included 
life imprisonment. Perhaps the largest 3 strikes policy was in 1994, in California, with Proposition 184, 
commonly called the  Three Strikes and You’re Out policy. It mandated a minimum of 25 years of prison 
for individuals committing 3 felonies. What made this policy more pervasive than others was the way in 
which it could be applied. If a person had two previous strikes for violent, or serious felonies (not necessarily 
violent), any new felony was life imprisonment, with a minimum of 25 years. For a more detailed view of 
this policy, see https://lao.ca.gov/2005/3_strikes/3_strikes_102005.htm 
Drug laws were also changing at this time. The Controlled Substances Import and Export Act (1970), 
started the increases for drugs in the U.S. under federally mandated minimums found within the federal code 
21 U.S.C. § 841. For a detailed reporting of these minimums, see https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/
pdf/research-and-publications/research-publications/2017/20171025_Drug-Mand-Min.pdf 
One of the most debated issues within the drug sentencing laws was the differential between cocaine (in 
powder form) and crack ( also form of cocaine, diluted and in a hardened paste form). During the increases 
in sentencing, there was a disparity in the lengths of sentences for comparable weights of these two drugs. 
There has been much debate whether this targeted poorer individuals more harshly, as crack was seen as a 
poor man’s cocaine. However, with additional mandatory minimum increases in the 1980s, differences in 
sentence lengths began to widen. In a detailed report, Barbara Meierhoefer (1992) detailed how the average 
sentence lengths for African Americans (for similar weights of crack v. cocaine for Whites) was roughly 50% 
higher, supporting this assertion that drug sentences were not equal. 
2 
With over a million arrests per year for drugs, it does add to the prison system as a whole. While the 
proportion of drug offenders in State prisons hovers around 20-25%, it is much larger at the federal level. As 
seen below, it makes up over half of the federal prisons. In all, the drug seriousness went up (how drugs are 
1. Wright, P. (1995). Three strikes racks ‘em up. Journal of Prisoners on Prisons, 6(2), 3-6. https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/
abstract.aspx?ID=162918 
2. Meierhoefer, B. (1992). The general effect of mandatory minimum prison terms: A longitudinal study of federal sentences imposed. 
Federal Judicial Center. https://www.fjc.gov/sites/default/files/2012/GenEffMM.pdf 
Introduction to the American Criminal Justice System
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