sentencingdisparity
Obama Signs Drug Sentencing Reform Into Law
originally posted by Jamilah King for Colorlines [click here]
Aug 3rd
This morning President Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act, a bill that reduces the disparities in sentencing for crack and powder cocaine offenses. Although he didn’t make a statement as he signed the new legislation, the president did say in a speech last week that the legislation would “help right a longstanding wrong” and was “the right thing to do,” reports the New York Times.
The new law mandates that the ratio in sentencing be lessened to 18 to 1 from 100 to 1 –a reluctant compromise by drug sentencing reform advocates.
We’ve reported before that since 1986, a person convicted of simple possession of crack cocaine has gotten the same mandatory sentence as a person with 100 times that amount of powder cocaine — often a five-year mandatory minimum sentence for simple possession, not dealing. Those sentences were deeply racially skewed: 85 percent of people convicted of crack offenses are black, even though blacks make up just 30 percent of crack users.
“By signing this reform into law, President Obama will save taxpayer money, reduce racial disparities and better prioritize federal law enforcement towards major crime syndicates instead of low-level offenders,” Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance, told The Times.
Congress still has to decide whether to apply the law retroactively.
Push to Fix Drug Laws Before Congress’ Summer Break
originally posted by Jamilah King for Colorlines [click here]
Jul 27th
As the House gets ready to adjourn for its August recess, prison reform advocates are urging lawmakers to vote on a bill that would lessen disparities between crack and powder cocaine sentencing. The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, which was first introduced by Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin and passed in the Senate back in March, could dramatically reduce the current 100 to 1 ratio down to 18 to 1. The move, while admittedly imperfect and only slightly less racist than its 25-year-old predecessor, is being heralded as a small but important step forward.
Current federal law is crafted around the falsely held, 1980’s-era belief that crack cocaine was more dangerous than its powder counterpart. Passed in 1986, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act mandated that a person holding five grams of crack cocaine get the same punishment as someone moving 500 grams of powder cocaine which, as Adam Serwer pointed out, did little to deter high level drug traffickers.
It did, however, overwhelmingly impact low-level drug users and dealers. More than 80 percent of people arrested for crack have been black, even though most users are white, and over the past two decades the black prison population has swelled as a result. Even law enforcement officials and tough-on-crime judges have called the sentencing disparity wrongheaded and complained that it creates distrust of courts in black neighborhoods.
The absurdity of it all isn’t lost on lawmakers.
Attorney General Eric Holder has called the sentencing “wildly unjust” while Durbin himself seemed reluctantly resigned to back away from equal sentencing last spring, after he was forced to compromise his original proposal.
What’s left is a bill that’s proposing to be slightly less racist than the one before it. On top of decreasing the sentencing disparity, the Fair Sentencing Act would also eliminate the mandatory-minimum of five years in prison for simple possession.
Calls for reform are being led by advocacy groups that include the Sentencing Project, and both the Washington Post and New York Times have published editorials this week urging Congress to fix the disparity.
Photo: Creative Commons/Center for American Progress Action Fund