Pubdate: Sun, 02 Mar 2008
Source: Post-Tribune (Merrillville, IN)
Copyright: 2008 Post-Tribune
Contact:  http://www.post-trib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3349
Author: Andy Grimm
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

CRACK COCAINE SENTENCINGS RECONSIDERED

Perhaps a dozen federal prisoners serving time for  dealing crack 
cocaine may be looking forward to an  early homecoming. As soon as 
Monday, changes to federal  sentencing guidelines take effect that 
will likely see  a handful of former Northwest Indiana offenders -- 
perhaps three or four-- go free.

The changes, a small move toward reducing a wide  disparity between 
mandatory prison terms for crack  dealers and cocaine, have been 
blasted by Justice  Department officials who say the inmates are 
violent  criminals who are likely to return to their criminal  ways 
after their release.

This month, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee  have engaged 
in a charged debate over changing federal  law to take a larger step 
toward evening a 100 to 1  ratio to the sentences for crack cocaine 
and its  principal ingredient, powder cocaine. For example, a  person 
convicted of selling 40 grams of powder cocaine  faces less than two 
years in prison. Sentences for the  same quantity of crack, a 
smokable mixture of cocaine  and baking soda or other fillers that 
sells for less  than powder, start at a minimum of eight years.

"Most of the people who will benefit after Monday are  only going to 
see a few months or a few years taken off  their sentence," said 
Jerome T. Flynn, Northern  District of Indiana Federal Community Defender.

One typical case, he says, is a 29-year-old Gary woman,  who has 
spent most of the last seven years in a  penitentiary in Hazelton, Pa.

She had two young children and no criminal record when  she was 
caught with more than 60 grams -- about two  dozen "rocks"-- of crack 
and a gun in a car she was  driving, and was given a reduced sentence 
of nine years  in exchange for a guilty plea and her cooperation with 
the prosecution of a friend who was driving with her.

"She'll get out less than a year earlier than she would  have, if 
prosecutors don't object," Flynn. "And you can  imagine the kind of 
relationship she must have with her  two children, from her cell in 
Pennsylvania."

Crack backlash

The harsh sentences for crack were put into federal law  amid a 
"panic" set off by the apparently swift and  corrosive arrival of 
crack in America's inner cities  during the 1980s, said Valparaiso 
University Law School  professor Derrick Carter.

Control of the urban crack trade seemed to touch off a  wave of 
violence between rival gangs, and the drug  seemed far more addictive 
than the pure cocaine from  which it was derived. Federal lawmakers' 
response, long  jail terms for relatively small amounts, was not well 
considered.

"The results were immediate and the racial component  was obvious, 
and has been," Carter said. "The black  community is poorer and users 
there buy crack because  it's cheaper. More affluent whites buy 
powder. It's the  same drug, but when you get arrested for crack, 
you're  doing far more time."

The number of blacks, particularly young black men, in  prison has 
climbed steadily since the 1980s, with  studies showing crack 
sentences a primary cause, Carter  said.

"The black community wanted a response to the crack  epidemic, but 
not this," he said. "Even if there isn't  a racial reason for why it 
was done, the result has  ravaged the black community."

Violent criminals stay put

Under guidelines in place just last month, an offender  charged for 
holding 40 grams of crack (two rocks might  weigh about 5 grams, 
about as much as a nickel), would  face a minimum prison term of 97 months.

The same quantity of powder cocaine would result in a  15- to 19-month term.

Justice Department officials have said 80 percent of  crack cocaine 
offenders also have a weapons charge tied  to their sentence and, 
statistically, they are likely  to commit similar crimes within only 
a few years of  their release.

Flynn counters that perhaps three of the hundreds of  drug cases 
handled in his seven years with the  Community Defender's office have 
involved a firearm  that was actually fired in connection with the 
crime  committed. Crack dealers in jail on drug charges and  violent 
crimes would likely not be eligible for early  release, because the 
sentence for their violent acts  would be concurrent to their drug 
crimes, he said.

"We're here to enforce the law," said Dan Bella, head  of the 
criminal division for the Northern District of  Indiana. "The rest of 
that is a public policy debate."

A Gary undercover narcotics officer said he's noticed  little 
difference between the crack dealers and cocaine  dealers he 
encounters. Higher-level drug traffickers  are more likely to have 
large quantities of powder  cocaine, which they in turn sell to 
street-level  dealers who make it into crack, which can be sold more cheaply.

"Most of these guys know the law, and they won't be  caught holding 
more than 3 grams anyway, because they  can plea bargain that down so 
it's not even a felony,"  he said. "I don't see any difference 
between the  dealers. They're all dangerous."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom