Pubdate: Mon, 05 Nov 2007
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)
Copyright: 2007 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc
Contact:  http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/340

CRACK AND POWDERED COCAINE

Toward Fairness In Sentencing

The U.S. Sentencing Commission is finally allowing  federal judges to
treat crack and powdered cocaine  about the same when they sentence
drug defendants.

That's welcome news. The drugs aren't that much  different, but since
the 1980s sentences have been much  harsher for crack dealers.
Authorities then were  motivated by the violence due to crack dealers
battling  for turf.

That particular violence abated years ago in most  cities, but the
harsher sentences remained. The result  has not been good for poor,
especially African  American, neighborhoods where the cheaper crack
cocaine  is more prevalent.

The disproportionate number of incarcerated black men  is due to
several factors, among them the disparate  treatment of cocaine
offenders. Rehabilitated inmates  ready to return to society remain
jailed when many  could be home, legally providing for their families.

Under the old federal sentencing guidelines, a  defendant would have
to be caught with 500 grams of  powdered cocaine before becoming
subject to the same  punishment as someone arrested for having as
little as  5 grams of crack cocaine.

Average sentences for crack offenses will drop from 121  months to 106
months under the new sentencing  guidelines. That will reduce the
federal prison  population by 3,800 inmates in 15 years; saving
taxpayers $87 million in incarceration costs, according  to the
Sentencing Project, a prison reform  organization.

More inmates would be eligible for release if the new  guidelines,
which Congress decided not to block, were  made retroactive. Care must
be taken in reducing any  inmate's sentence, but fairness should be
part of the  equation.
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MAP posted-by: Derek