A 1997 study by the RAND Corporation found that treating heavy drug users was almost ten times more cost-effective in reducing the use, sale and drug crime than longer mandatory sentences (Échols, 2014). Other studies have shown that mandatory sentences also have no demonstrable marginal or short-term effects on overall crime reduction. Congress established mandatory sentences to incarcerate high-level drug criminals, but according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, only 11% of inmates on drug charges fit this description (Echols, 2014). Most of those incarcerated are low-level offenders, whose spots in the drug trade are easily filled by others. Mandatory minimum sentences are essentially a waste of limited criminal justice resources and federal funds that could be used elsewhere, and reducing mandatory minimum sentences through the Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Act may be the first step toward eliminating them. total minimum sentences. Ideally, if given discretion, judges would be more inclined to provide more effective alternatives to incarceration, such as rehabilitation programs and/or