PENALTIES FOR CRACK

The Sensible Reduction of Jail Time for Drug Offenders Should Be Made
Retroactive.

THIS MONTH, a measure of rationality was injected into federal
sentencing guidelines when more lenient penalties for crack cocaine
became the law of the land. The new guidelines will affect defendants
convicted in the future, but they also should be made retroactive.
That would bring some measure of equity to thousands of offenders --
roughly 85 percent of them African American men -- already serving
unjustifiably long prison terms.

In May, the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which has the authority to
craft sentencing guidelines for federal crimes, sent to Congress a
proposal that would reduce the penalties for crack offenses. For
example, a first-time offender caught with five grams of crack
previously faced a prison term of up to 78 months; under the new
sentencing scheme, he faces a maximum of 63 months. The commission
had forwarded such recommendations several times before, only to have
them vetoed by Congress. This time, to lawmakers' credit, the measure
was allowed to stand.

The commission is considering whether to make the more lenient
penalties retroactive -- a power it can exercise without
congressional approval. It estimates that 19,500 prisoners would be
eligible for reduced sentences, including roughly 270 prisoners from
the District, 280 from Maryland and 1,400 from the Eastern District
of Virginia, which includes Northern Virginia and Richmond.

The Justice Department and some in the law enforcement community
worry that allowing early release for so many crack offenders would
affect public safety. But the evidence suggests the worries are
overblown. For starters, any reduced sentence must be approved by a
federal judge, who may take into account a prisoner's criminal
history and other factors. Federal prosecutors also have a voice in
this process and can raise objections to a particular prisoner's
sentence reduction. And not all of the 19,500 would be released at
once. Different numbers of prisoners would become eligible for early
release at different times over a period of three decades, according
to a commission analysis. In the District, 32 inmates would be
eligible for immediate release if the reforms were made retroactive;
in Maryland, the number would be 21; in the Eastern District, 48.

The lunacy in crack penalties will not be eliminated until lawmakers
grapple with the mandatory minimum sentences now in place. These
statutes mandate a five-year sentence for someone caught with five
grams of crack; an offender would have to be caught with 500 grams of
powder cocaine to trigger the same sentence. There are good arguments
for why crack should carry tougher sentences than powder cocaine,
including the fact that crack is ferociously addictive and
destructive. But a 100-to-1 disparity is irrational. Lawmakers should
act quickly on one of the several bills pending in Congress that
would narrow that gap.