Advocates say more conservative Republicans are seeing the wisdom of reforming minimum mandatory sentencing laws.
Families Against Mandatory Minimums state director Greg Newburn cites the Senate Criminal Justice Committee’s unanimous vote to eliminate mandatory sentences for a host of non-violent crimes, including low-level drug trafficking.
“If you go back to 2011, the conversations in the committees, both in the Senate and the House, were almost exclusively about putting more crimes on the books, making more crimes felonies.”
The measure by Democrat Daryl Rouson of St. Petersburg won the support of law-and-order Republicans like Rob Bradley of Flemming Island and Dennis Baxley of Ocala. A House version has yet to be heard.
