BILL CLINTON ADMITS 'REGRET' ON CRACK COCAINE SENTENCING

PHILADELPHIA -- It was an expression of regret that didn't seem to
register with the knot of journalists who came to cover the event --
an apology that deserves more than fleeting attention.

In a keynote address last week at a University of Pennsylvania
symposium commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Kerner Commission
report on the causes of racial disturbances in the 1960s, Bill Clinton
did what many politicians find hard to do: admit he made a big mistake.

"I regret more than I can say that we didn't do more on it," he said
about his administration's failure to end the disparate sentencing for
people convicted of crack and powder cocaine offenses. "I'm prepared
to spend a significant portion of whatever life I've got left on the
earth trying to fix this because I think it's a cancer," the former
president said of the devastating impact this sentencing imbalance has
had on blacks.

And, indeed, it is a cancer. Since they were first enacted in 1986,
the federal sentencing guidelines have mandated the same prison terms
for people convicted of selling 5 grams of crack cocaine as someone
found guilty of selling 500 grams of powered cocaine.

This disparate treatment of cocaine offenders has had a stark racial
element to it since blacks are disproportionately more likely to be
incarcerated for selling crack cocaine than whites and Hispanics who
are more likely to be convicted of selling powered cocaine.

In 1995, when the U.S. Sentencing Commission first recommended
eliminating the 100-to-1 sentencing disparity, President Clinton
opposed that change. Two years later, during a White House meeting
with members of The Trotter Group, an organization of black
columnists, Clinton said he would support a reduction in sentencing
ratio.

The following month, his administration urged Congress to narrow the
crack-to-powder sentencing disparity down to 10-to-1. But federal
lawmakers refused to do so, an inaction that has left black drug
offenders to linger behind bars -- serving nearly as much time in
federal prisons as whites who were incarcerated for violent crimes.

Last year, the Sentencing Commission issued guidelines that will give
judges the power to order a small reduction in the sentences of people
imprisoned for selling crack cocaine. But Congress has shown little
inclination to wipe out the sentencing guidelines.

When I asked Clinton during an onstage interview after his speech
whether he regretted not eliminating the sentencing disparity, he said
that while it was "politically impossible" to get the reduction he
sought through Congress, he now believes the 1986 guidelines were a
mistake that have taken a heavy toll on blacks.

"We sentenced with a shotgun instead of a rifle," he said of the
congressional act.

In addition to calling on Congress to end this disparity, Clinton said
there also needs to be "an aggressive effort to pass federal
legislation to restore voting rights to people as soon as they get out
of jail." Blacks, who are just 13% of the nation's population, were
41.6% of state and federal prisoners in 2006 and as a result far more
likely to be hurt by state laws that deny convicted felons the right
to vote.

While this was not the first time Clinton called for an elimination of
the crack-to-powder sentencing disparity -- he did so in a November
2000 Rolling Stone interview -- it's the first time he has done it so
unequivocally and forcefully.

Of course, it's a good bet that what Clinton said last week won't sit
well with many critics, who will say this is too little, too late. But
I don't think his apology -- or his pledge to help repair the damage
done by the sentencing disparity -- should be summarily dismissed.

Of this nation's 43 presidents, Bill Clinton is one of a handful who
has forged a meaningful bond with blacks. And I think the apology he
offered last week is proof of his desire to maintain this friendship.