BILL EQUATES CRACK AND POWDER FORM

Crack cocaine is dangerous. It is addictive. It facilitates gang violence.

But the same can be said for powder cocaine, a truth that federal
officials are attempting to recognize by reducing what some consider
a race-based discrepancy between the penalties for crack cocaine
possession and powder cocaine possession.

A bill under consideration, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del.,
would equalize the punishment for possession of either form of cocaine.

This spring the U.S. Sentencing Commission passed new guidelines that
reduced penalties for crack cocaine possession, and officials are now
debating whether the new guidelines should be applied retroactively -
a change that would affect an estimated 19,500 inmates.

In western North Carolina, about 536 people could be released
following the passage of proposed legislation. Another 489 people in
the eastern part of the state and 436 in the middle could also be
released early.

UNC law professor Richard Myers said it is important to realize that
these inmates will not be released automatically. Instead they must
follow the appropriate legal process of being re-sentenced, which
would likely cost the state a substantial amount of money.

There is also concern on the federal level that re-sentencing such a
large number of inmates would strain the judicial system, said Steve
Cook, vice president of the National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys.

"Some of the people from the (U.S.) Department of Justice fear that
this will be releasing criminals with a history of violence and crack
dealing into communities not prepared for it," Myers said.

But he said former crack dealers have served more time than they
deserved and the risks of releasing the criminals do not outweigh the
issue of fairness at hand.

Stephen Saltzburg, a George Washington University law professor, said
that during the 1980s Congress supported harsh anti-crack cocaine
legislation because of a misconception that crack cocaine posed more
of a threat to society than powder cocaine.

Federal courts treat possession of one gram of crack cocaine with the
same severity as 100 grams of powder cocaine.

"I think that the unfairness is apparent and is a bad thing for our
criminal justice system," Saltzburg said.

UNC law professor Richard Rosen said laws discriminate on the basis
of race, as crack cocaine is most frequently used by blacks.

"(People are) trying to remedy the discrimination, which has been a
part of the law," he said.

Rosen said that such racial discrimination might not be evident
within state prisons but that on a federal level it is people of
color and low socioeconomic status who are most frequently persecuted
because crack cocaine is easily available on the streets.

A 2006 report by the U.S. Sentencing Commission found that 22.8
percent of sentenced drug-offense defendants were charged with powder
cocaine possession, whereas 21.1 percent were charged with crack
cocaine possession.

The same report found that, in North Carolina, 28.3 percent of
sentenced drug-offense defendants were charged with powder cocaine
possession, while 41 percent were charged with crack cocaine possession.