//------------------------------//
// Introduction 
// Story: I Beg Your Pardon 
// by SwordTune 
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	The past few weeks has been an amazing week for Equestria. However, between the Yakyakistan deal and the Grand Equestria Pony Summit, you may have missed a few pieces of news, such as Princess Celestia granting clemency to forty nonviolent drug offenders, the largest number of pardons in one day since the return of Princess Luna. 

What makes these pardons a big deal is that each of the ponies granted clemency were all subjected to mandatory minimum sentencing laws. Mandatory minimums require judges to punish certain crimes with a minimum number of year in prison regardless of context. The problem there, is that context is important with these kinds of things. For instance, hearing the phrase, "It's really red," is fine when commenting on a brand new cart or carriage, but not so much when the doctor is commenting on the rash you've had for two days. So yes, Celestia, context is important. 

Our current mandatory minimum laws were passed around the time of the formation of the E.U.P., however since then Celestia and her advisers have revised the laws many times, however since the last revision thirty-eight years ago these laws have been responsible for an enormous explosion of our prison population. Even now, the size of our prison population is such that about one out of two hundred adults is locked up. That's insane. That's enough to fill the population of a whole country with prisoners, and that certainly doesn't sound like a good idea. 

Despite the claims of the writers of the mandatory minimum laws, they have done huge amounts of damage to ponies and their lives. Prepare to meet some pony who has miraculously been freed from the bonds of manditory minimums and would like to share his story. 


This audio recording has been adapted and funded by Cloudsdale Printings, Sofas and Quills, and Manehattan Times.