What is the effect of mandatory sentencing in criminal cases?

³ Another, likely unintended, consequence of mandatory sentencing is that it transfers discretion from the sentencing judge who is constrained by 18 U.S.C. 3553 and subject to judicial review to prosecutors, who have almost absolute discretion to choose which charges to bring, and therefore which mandatory sentences will apply. See Bordenkircher v. Hayes , 434 U.S. 357, 364, 98 S.Ct. 663, 54 L.Ed.2d 604 (1978) ("[T]he decision whether or not to prosecute, and what charge to file ... generally rests entirely in [the prosecutor's] discretion.").