Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) is an American nonprofit
advocacy organization
Advocacy groups, also known as interest groups, special interest groups, lobbying groups or pressure groups use various forms of advocacy in order to influence public opinion and ultimately policy. They play an important role in the developm ...
founded in 1991 to challenge
mandatory sentencing
Mandatory sentencing requires that offenders serve a predefined term for certain crimes, commonly serious and violent offenses. Judges are bound by law; these sentences are produced through the legislature, not the judicial system. They are inst ...
laws and advocate for
criminal justice reform
Criminal justice reform addresses structural issues in Criminal justice, criminal justice systems such as racial profiling, police brutality, overcriminalization, mass incarceration, and recidivism. Criminal justice reform can take place at any poi ...
. FAMM promotes sentencing policies that give judges the discretion to distinguish between
defendant
In court proceedings, a defendant is a person or object who is the party either accused of committing a crime in criminal prosecution or against whom some type of civil relief is being sought in a civil case.
Terminology varies from one jurisdic ...
s and sentence them according to their role in the offense, the seriousness of the offense, and their potential for rehabilitation. FAMM's members include
prison
A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...
ers and their families,
attorneys,
judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...
s,
criminal justice
Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the Rehabilitation (penology), rehabilitation of o ...
experts, and concerned citizens. In 2018, ''The Washington Post'' described FAMM as "one of the leading organizations that have pushed for criminal justice changes."
The organization's founder, Julie Stewart, started FAMM shortly after her brother was convicted of growing marijuana plants near his home and given a mandatory five year federal prison sentence.
FAMM organized lobbying efforts in support of the
First Step Act
The First Step Act, formally known as the Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed Safely Transitioning Every Person Act, is a bipartisan criminal justice bill passed by the 115th Congress and signed by President Donald Trump in Decembe ...
, a law which reforms the U.S. federal prison system and seeks to reduce recidivism and decrease the federal
inmate population.
The organizers succeeded in their efforts and the Act was passed by the
115th Congress and signed into law in December 2018. It changed U.S. federal criminal sentencing laws, among other reforms.
[
]
See also
* Incarceration in the United States
Incarceration in the United States is a primary form of punishment and rehabilitation for the commission of felony and other offenses. The United States has the largest prison population in the world, and the highest per-capita incarceratio ...
* War on drugs
The war on drugs is a Globalization, global campaign, led by the United States federal government, of prohibition of drugs, drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention, with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the Unite ...
References
External links
*
*
{{authority control
Political advocacy groups in the United States
Criminal justice reform in the United States
1991 establishments in Washington, D.C.