child porn sentences now included on FAMM site

Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) has done good work focusing on the problems presented by mandatory minimum sentencing. When I first found FAMM, there was no mention of child pornography charges on their site. Evidently I wasn't the only one asking them to change that: FAMM now has a page about mandatory minimum sentencing for child porn charges.

Penalties for child pornography offenses have skyrocketed in recent years. Congress has increased statutory penalties and issued directives to the U.S. Sentencing Commission to increase the guideline sentences.  The result? In 1997, child pornography offenders received a mean sentence of 20.59 months. In 2010, the mean sentence grew to 118 months. This change represents a 500 percent increase in the mean sentence imposed for this class of offenders in just 14 years. 

The rapid increase in sentence length, driven mostly by Congress and not empirical evidence, has led judges to depart form the guidelines at an increasing rate. Some judges have also expressed concern that not all offenders are equally culpable and therefore do not deserve the harsh one-size-fits-all penalties that usually apply. (My emphasis.) 

Thank you, FAMM, for including families like mine in your cause. 

Update: Changed "child porn charges" to "child porn sentences" in the heading.