INEQUITY'S END MEANS NEW START FOR 31

Crack Offenders From Mass. See US Sentences Trimmed

Jean Janvier spent 17 months locked up for selling about 2 grams of
crack cocaine in Dorchester.

To show what 2 grams looks like, his lawyer shook out a half-dozen
orange Tic Tacs into his palm as Janvier watched. "That much," George
F. Gormley said in his South Boston law office.

If the Haitian-born Janvier had been caught with that much powdered
cocaine, he probably would never have been prosecuted in federal
court or been incarcerated if convicted in state court.

For two decades, the criminal justice system treated crack cocaine
offenses much more harshly than crimes involving the powder form of
the drug. But Janvier got a break not long after he was sentenced in
July.

In December, the US Sentencing Commission voted to retroactively
lighten punishments for some crack-related crimes in a landmark move
to narrow the disparity between the penalties, a disparity that has
taken a particular toll on blacks, who account for most crack offenders.

Soon afterward, a federal district court judge cut Janvier's two-year
sentence by five months, plus two months for good behavior. He was
released in May from a federal prison in upstate New York and is
among at least 31 inmates convicted of crack cocaine offenses in
Massachusetts who have been freed since March, said Miriam Conrad, a
federal public defender.

Janvier was grateful to get out of the medium-security Federal
Correctional Institution in Ray Brook.

"Even if you were over there for a week and you found out that you
was going to get out a day early, it would put a smile to your face,"
said Janvier, 22, of Dorchester. "Don't nobody want to be in that
type of situation."

Like many other crack offenders, Janvier had a criminal record before
he pleaded guilty to dealing crack, having been arrested twice on
drug and weapon charges. But critics of crack laws say the larger
issue is the injustice that crack cocaine offenders serve sentences
three to five times longer than those sentenced for powder cocaine.

Few laws have been more widely decried by judges, defense lawyers,
prisoner advocates, and even some police officials than the mandatory
penalties for crack passed by Congress in the 1980s. Under the law,
someone caught with 1 gram of crack was subject to the same sentence
as someone with 100 grams of powder cocaine. The law also imposed a
mandatory sentence of five years in prison for dealing 5 grams of
crack and 10 years in prison for dealing 50 grams of crack.

Some repeat offenders convicted of large sales have been sentenced to
life without parole.

The Sentencing Commission, which sets guidelines for federal prison
sentences, went even further than Congress, establishing sentence
ranges for crack-related crimes that exceeded what lawmakers mandated.

The punishments reflected a widespread belief that crack was more
dangerous than the powdered drug and was fueling deadly gun violence.
But specialists on drug abuse ultimately concluded that the two forms
of cocaine had more similarities than differences.

The result of the guidelines was a racially skewed inequity between
punishments for the two forms of cocaine. Nearly 83 percent of the
5,472 people sentenced in 2007 in federal courts in the United
States for crack cocaine offenses were black, according to Mary
Price, vice president and general counsel for Families Against
Mandatory Minimums, an advocacy group.

Conrad, whose agency has represented about a third of the prisoners
who have been freed by judges in Massachusetts, said federal
prosecutors would never look at someone caught selling 2 grams of
powdered cocaine. "It wouldn't even be on their radar screen," she
said.

In December, the Sentencing Commission reduced the sentencing range
for certain crack offenses by two levels. For example, it lowered the
maximum recommended sentence for selling 5 grams of cocaine from 78
months to 63 months.

Judges in Massachusetts have responded swiftly.

By July 8, judges had trimmed the sentences of 79 of 109 inmates,
including those who were freed, according to Chief US District Judge
Mark L. Wolf. Some freed prisoners have been detained elsewhere for
other legal proceedings, including deportation if they are not US
citizens.

The commission had estimated that 25 prisoners from Massachusetts
would be eligible for release by November and that a total of 91
prisoners could be freed through 2012. Nationwide, the commission has
estimated that about 20,500 will eventually be freed early.

US Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey had opposed making the new
guidelines retroactive, saying it could send violent criminals back
to the streets en masse.

But Wolf said the revised guidelines have safeguards. Judges consult
prosecutors, defense lawyers, probation officers, and others about
the conduct of imprisoned inmates and strive not to release anyone
who might pose a danger, he said. Those sentenced as career offenders
are ineligible. Prosecutors have agreed to most of the 79 shortened
sentences, Wolf added.

US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan said that if defendants meet
eligibility requirements and are not a danger to the community,
prosecutors should not object.

Lieutenant Jeffrey P. Silva - a spokesman for the New Bedford police,
who have made numerous crack cocaine arrests - said he does not worry
that crime will rise as a result of the releases.

But he minimized the significance of the sentence disparities,
saying, "I don't feel there's anybody who got arrested for crack
cocaine who was a pillar of the community."

A report released by the commission last month, based on partial
data, indicated that defendants whose sentences were shortened in
Massachusetts had originally been sentenced to an average of nine
years in prison and that their sentences were cut to about 7 1/2
years.

While delighted to be free, Janvier said imprisonment did him some
good.

The son of a taxi driver and a registered nurse, he said that briefer
previous incarcerations did not shake him the way this one did.
Janvier, a graduate of Madison Park Technical Vocational High School,
said he dealt crack for about five years and had a history of drug
and alcohol problems.

Janvier has to complete six months in a Boston halfway house and will
be on supervised release for five years.

He spends his days applying for entry-level jobs at Home Depot,
Staples, and other stores. He tells employers he has been convicted
of a felony and has no work experience, but hopes someone will give
him a chance.

"I don't want people to judge me just by looking at my record and
saying I'm a bad person," he said. "I always call back and say, 'This
is what I used to do, but I'm trying to leave it in the past.' "