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."