TOWARD DRUG CASE JUSTICE

Attorney General Michael Mukasey tried to scare the House Judiciary
Committee on Thursday into blocking a responsible plan by the United
States Sentencing Commission to address the gross disparity in
penalties for possession or sale of crack cocaine and those for
powder cocaine offenses. His alarm is unwarranted.

Under current federal law, people convicted of selling 5 grams of
crack -- most often used in impoverished, minority areas -- face the
same five-year mandatory minimum sentence as offenders caught selling
500 grams of the powdered cocaine popular with more upscale users.
This 100-to-1 rule is a legacy of the 1980s, when it was erroneously
believed that crack was much more dangerous than the chemically
identical powder. Congress made crack cocaine the only drug that
carries a mandatory minimum sentence for possession -- even for
first-time offenders.

For more than a decade, the sentencing commission, which is the
bipartisan body that sets guidelines for federal prison sentences,
has been urging Congress to address the sentencing disparity. Using
its own authority, the commission last year adopted new guidelines
aimed at giving crack cocaine offenders a shot at marginally reducing
their time in prison. The Bush administration objects to the
commission's recent decision to make those changes retroactive.

Mr. Mukasey warned that unless Congress acts quickly to severely
narrow eligibility, "1,600 convicted crack dealers, many of them
violent gang members, will be eligible for immediate release into
communities nationwide." That is a distortion.

Under the new guidelines, each petition for early release is to be
evaluated by a federal judge in consultation with the authorities.
Not all crack offenders are eligible, and judges are specifically
directed to weigh public safety concerns. Nothing prevents judges
from releasing inmates to a halfway facility, where appropriate, to
ease the transition back to society and reduce the chance of
recidivism. All offenders would still have to serve their mandatory
minimum sentence. On average, the commission estimates, lengthy crack
sentences stand to be shortened by less than three years.

The commission issued its plan just a day after the Supreme Court
upheld the discretion of judges to dispense lighter sentences for
crack cocaine defendants than those recommended by federal sentencing
guidelines. Next week, a Senate judiciary subcommittee is scheduled
to hold a hearing on reducing the giant chasm of injustice created by
the current sentencing scheme.

Instead of brandishing overblown fears to try to defeat a limited
reform, Mr. Mukasey should be working with Congress to finally end
the damaging 100-to-1 rule.