The historically conservative Reader’s Digest comes through with Petty Crime, Outrageous Punishment by Carl M. Cannon.
The article goes after the three-strikes law, but includes a lot more mandatory minimum madness, including this amazing story:

A Florida welfare mom, Clyburn accompanied her boyfriend to a pawnshop to sell his .22-caliber pistol. She provided her ID because her [...]

You may recall that Boulder City Attorney Dave Olsen wants to seize the home of 56-year-old Cynthia Warren for her misdemeanor charge of growing 6 marijuana plants (see here and here). The editorials in the papers have been slamming Olsen.
At the time, several commenters here noted that Dave Olsen pled no contest to a misdemeanor [...]