Pubdate: Sun, 16 Dec 2007 Source: Daily Nation (Barbados) Copyright: 2007, Nation Publishing Co. Limited Contact: http://www.nationnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2249 Author: Tony Best Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/racial.htm (Racial Issues) MORE CRIMINALS BEING SENT BACK BARBADOS MAY soon be forced to absorb more criminal deportees from the United States. The criminal aliens who are soon to be released were originally sent to prison for drug dealing and it is expected that about 3 500 inmates, some of them from the Caribbean, Bajans included, could have their terms shortened within the next few months. That's going to happen because of a decision by the United States Sentencing Commission to lighten punishment retroactively for some drug crimes. It's a move that could eventually free as many as 20 000 inmates who were sent to federal prison for drug dealing. Some of them could be freed as early as the middle of next year, if not sooner, but the bulk of them would have to wait while judges review their sentences. Criminals who are not American citizens are automatically deported. In a 7-0 decision, the Commission, which sets sentencing guidelines for the nation's federal courts, stated that it was wrong for the courts to impose longer sentences for crimes involving crack cocaine than for offences involving chemically identical powdered white cocaine. Drug of choice While crack is favoured by Blacks in poor neighbourhoods where many West Indians live, the white stuff is the drug of choice of whites, especially suburban dwellers. The upshot: Blacks, including thousands of West Indians, were given stiffer prison terms for crack, some as long as 22 years, while whites, who used white cocaine, served much shorter times behind bars. That explains why 85 per cent of the federal prison inmates convicted of drug offences are Black. The Commission has ordered that beginning on March 3, 2008, those behind bars for crack cocaine offences could petition trial judges to have their sentences reviewed, and that process was expected to spring thousands of convicted criminals in 2008. Bajans, Jamaicans, Trinidadians and others in the region are expected to be among them. Michael King, Barbados' Ambassador in Washington, said while he was unable to say how the Commission's action would affect Bajans in federal prisons, some of them could benefit from the ruling. Not aware "I can't predict the impact because I am not aware as to the number of persons whom the US would be preparing to send back home as criminal deportees," he said. "I don't know their thinking in terms of who or how many. But I can assure you that if this is the case, almost every country in the Caribbean is likely to be receiving some criminal deportees as they are released. "It will be another challenge that they will have to face up to. But I really can't predict what will happen and what the numbers are in the United States." Not available Although exact figures aren't available for Barbados, several hundred Bajans, at least 600, have been deported from the US after serving time in federal and state prisons for drug and other criminal offences since 1996. At least 20 000 criminal aliens were sent back to Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Suriname and other countries in the region during the past 11 years. Many law enforcement officials and researchers in the Caribbean have blamed criminal aliens for contributing to the mushrooming incidence of crime in the region, especially in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and the Dominican Republic. While Barbados is among a few Caribbean nations which didn't link the rise in crime to the deportees, officials in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, St Lucia, Guyana, St Kitts-Nevis and the Bahamas have said the deportees were definitely involved in criminal activity. The nations asked the Bush Administration and Congress to change the law to reduce the flow of deportees. In June, when Caricom leaders met with US President George Bush at the State Department in Washington, he rejected pleas to amend the laws to allow some convicted criminals, especially those who came to the US as children, but never became naturalised citizens, to remain in the US after they had served prison terms. However, the US is working with a few Caribbean states to help finance a criminal alien re-integration programme there in those states. "The United States has been working with three Caricom countries looking at projects for the re-integration of criminal aliens and they are Bahamas, Guyana and Jamaica," said the Barbados envoy. Being considered "I am not sure of the state of play with regard to those initiatives, but it is my understanding that the broader issue of the deportees is being considered at the regional level." In a stunning move, the US Supreme Court gave federal judges more discretion when they impose sentences for drug offences. Previously, they were forced to hand down sentences based on overarching guidelines that imposed stiffer sentences for drug dealers in poor neighbourhoods than whites in the suburbs. Opponents of the mandatory sentences had contended for years that the disparity gave Whites an easier passage than Blacks who were often given lengthy sentences for small amounts of crack cocaine while Whites were often spared after being convicted of possessing larger quantities of white cocaine. "At its core, this question is one of fairness," said Judge William Sessions 111 of the US District Court in Vermont who also sits on the Commission. "This is an historic day. This system of justice is, and must always be colour bind." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom