REDUCED SENTENCES FOR CRACK COCAINE CONVICTS

Family Hopes For Early Release Of Man Imprisioned On Crack Cocaine Charges

Federal Changes On Crack Cocaine Sentencing Could Mean Early Release

OCALA - On a muggy spring afternoon last week, Isaac Shade stood on
the wooden porch of his southwest Ocala home and spoke about the son
he hasn't seen on a regular basis since January 2006.

Cradling a photo taken when his son was 18, Shade seems to bear no
grudge against Antoin Lamar, now 32, who was arrested under his very
roof on possession of crack cocaine and handgun charges.

"I miss him a lot because he's my baby," the retired truck driver
said of Antoin, who is serving a 15-year sentence at Coleman Federal
Correctional Complex.

Shade isn't due to be released until 2021. By then, he would be 44,
his father, 83. But he could get out sooner if retroactive changes to
federal crack cocaine sentencing guidelines apply to his case.

Shade is just one of the many Marion County residents who were
ordered to serve time in federal prison for crack cocaine possession
before sentencing guidelines were amended in November. The change was
soon followed by a pair of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that gave
federal judges discretion in imposing sentences higher or lower than
the guidelines, which were meant to be advisory and intended as just
one guidepost in judges' decisions.

Under the newly amended guidelines, defendants convicted of crack
cocaine possession would see their sentences reduced by an average of
27 months. In December, the commission made the amendment
retroactive, allowing certain inmates already in prison to be
eligible for early release, effective March 3.

Nearly 19,500 people nationwide qualify for reduced sentences, with
2,500 eligible for immediate release. The amendment, while modest in
scope, is one of the most far-reaching changes applied to drug
sentencing guidelines since the 1987 federal guidelines were formed.

QUESTION OF FAIRNESS

Many have argued that the original sentencing laws, ushered in at the
height of a perceived national crack epidemic with the 1986 Anti-Drug
Abuse Act, were draconian and grossly disproportionate. A defendant
found with 5 grams of crack cocaine - about several sugar cubes'
worth - would receive the same five-year sentence as an individual
found with 500 grams of powder cocaine, or enough to fill a small plastic bag.

"The crack problem was so rampant, it was more or less a reaction to
the proliferation of crack in our communities," said Rick Carey, the
assistant federal public defender stationed in Ocala.

Because studies have shown that 86 percent of crack users are black,
and powder cocaine users are more likely to be white or Hispanic,
many felt the 100-to-1 sentencing ratio was racially skewed.

These federal sentencing laws were influenced by the commonly held,
often erroneous belief that crack cocaine was linked to more
violence, produced "crack babies," and was inherently more addictive
than powder cocaine, according to James Felman, a Tampa-based
criminal defense attorney who serves as co-chair of the American Bar
Association's Committee on Corrections and Sentencing.

Florida's Middle District, which includes Ocala, Jacksonville,
Orlando, Tampa and Fort Myers, contains the second-highest number of
prosecuted crack cocaine cases in the country, surpassed only by
Virginia's Eastern District.

Federal public defenders in the Middle District have handled more
than 600 cases in which defendants are eligible for early release.
That number accounts for less than half the total number that
officials have left to deal with, according to James Skuthan, the
acting federal public defender for the Middle District.

"Our main focus right now is that every spare hand we have, we go
towards working these cases," Skuthan said.

SOME RELEASED

During a brainstorming summit held in January in Charlotte, Va.,
district judges, federal defenders, prosecutors and probation
officers established a methodology on how best to process the caseloads.

Under the agreed-upon system, inmates with projected release dates of
2008, 2009 and 2010 would be grouped under a priority list, with one
of 15 federal judges in the Middle District authorizing the early releases.

Of the 600 cases open thus far in the Middle District, roughly 15
originate in Ocala. In fact, some inmates already have been released
from prison, according to Rosemary Cakmis, chief of the Middle
District's appellate division, who is taking on all cases from
Orlando and Ocala.

Those inmates whose reductions she has overseen have known about
their eligibility for a while, she said, and they simply want to
rejoin society without fanfare.

"They're reporting to supervised release. They're working. They're
doing everything to show they don't want to have trouble with
anyone," Cakmis said. She added that former inmates still must submit
to drug testing, visit with probation officers and report even the
most minor speeding tickets.

"They just want to get on with their lives," she said.

Since the amendment provides only for a two-level reduction -
bringing, for instance, a 10-year, 1-month sentence down to eight
years, 10 months - the length of reductions ranges from five months
to a couple of years to, at most, five years off a 30-year sentence.

In effect, inmates sentenced to serve longer time benefit the most
from the amendment.

The amendment isn't so cut and dried as to affect everyone. Career
drug offenders, violent felons and inmates serving minimum mandatory
sentences are not eligible under the adjustment.

"There's a misconception that everyone's going to get out, and that's
not accurate," said Melanie Slaughter, an Ocala-based criminal
defense attorney. "It's only guys who've gotten 10, 12, 15 years, a
big chunk of time."

Some see the sentencing laws as just; others, like Cakmis, simply
balk at them, pointing out that one could get more time in federal
court for drugs than he could in state court for murder.

"Some have gotten 30 years in prison for drugs. For drugs? Doesn't
that sort of boggle your mind?" she asked.

WAITING, WONDERING

Michael Pryor, 21, a nephew of Antoin Lamar Shade, said he
occasionally speaks to his uncle when he phones from prison. "We try
to keep him in a positive attitude," he said. "Fifteen years is a
hard pill to swallow. We try to keep him motivated, that we're trying
as hard as we can" to file paperwork to help reduce his sentence, he said.

Pryor's sister, La'Quandra Brown, 23, is spearheading the family's
effort to get Shade out early, he said. She writes to him daily and
has gone to the public library to learn more information about
inmates' eligibility to receive reduced sentences.

Efforts to contact Shade at Coleman were unsuccessful.

Shade's situation represents just a sliver of the legal action taking
place all across federal prisons, as inmates who believe they are
eligible for early release file pro se motions appealing for reduced sentences.

For some, the sentencing wars remain an uphill battle. Despite the
Sentencing Commission's guideline adjustment, only Congress can
change the minimum mandatory statutes that automatically assign a
defendant five years behind bars for possessing 5 grams of crack
cocaine, as opposed to 100 grams of powder, essentially leaving the
100-1 ratio intact.

Not everyone thinks those harsh guidelines are worth it in the end.

"With respect to guidelines, the deterrent effect of prison is not
what we would hope it to be, when you look at recidivism," said David
Wilson, an Ocala-based private attorney who has defended dozens of
crack cocaine cases.

"[The guidelines] are just a methodology," he said. "It's a huge
warehousing system."