SESSIONS SEEKS TO ADJUST SENTENCES FOR CRACK, POWDER COCAINE OFFENSES

WASHINGTON - Sen. Jeff Sessions, a one-time federal prosecutor,
introduced a bill Tuesday that would reduce the "unconscionable"
disparity in federal prison terms for crack and powder cocaine offenses.

"The 100-to-1 disparity in sentencing between crack cocaine and
powder cocaine is not justifiable ... these changes will make the
criminal justice system more effective and fair," said the Republican
senator and former Alabama attorney general.

His bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., John Cornyn,
R-Texas, and Ken Salazar, D-Colo., all former attorney generals.

This is not Sessions' first attempt to bring such a bill to the
Senate floor. He introduced similar legislation in 2002 with the
co-sponsorship of Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).

Under federal sentencing requirements instituted in the mid-1980s, a
minimum five-year prison term is mandatory for possession of 5 grams
of crack, or 500 grams of powder cocaine. Under the legislation
sponsored by Sessions, however, the crack minimum would be raised to
20 grams and the powder cocaine amount reduced to 400 grams.

A 10-year mandatory minimum sentence is issued when an individual is
convicted of possessing 50 grams of crack, or 5,000 grams of cocaine
powder. With the change sought by Sessions, the minimum amount of
crack would be raised to 200 grams and powder cocaine lowered to 4,000 grams.

In the mid-1980s, when the mandatory sentencing laws were passed,
"crack cocaine was a relatively new drug," according to Marc Mauer,
executive director of The Sentencing Project, a Washington,
D.C.-based non-profit organization that focuses on incarceration alternatives.

"There was a real frenzy around the drug," he said.

"It's hard to prove it, but there's a long history of penalties
passed by legislators reflecting conscious or unconscious racial
bias, given that image of crack user was a young, black man," Mauer added.

Tuscaloosa County District Attorney Tommy Smith argued that, "drugs
affect" all users equally. "It is a false argument to try to make it
a racial problem."

According to a 2000 report by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, 84
percent of crack cocaine users were African American and 5 percent Caucasian.

Some drug reform advocates claim that the current federal sentencing
guidelines focus on possession of minor quantities that should be
dealt with on a state or local level.

Eric E. Sterling, president of the Maryland-based Criminal Justice
Policy Foundation, said some amounts subject to federal prosecution
are "trivial," weighing 5 to 50 grams.

"Cocaine gets smuggled into this country by airplanes, cargo
containers. Those are quantities in hundreds of thousands of grams," he said.

Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a Washington, D.C.-based
organization that challenges mandatory sentencing laws, said the
Sessions legislation needs to go further to reform existing laws.

"Instead of tinkering with drug weights, the senators should reform
mandatory minimum sentencing laws so that drug weights alone don't
determine sentence length. Sentences should be based on traditional
factors such as culpability, role in the offense, and the use of
weapons or violence," the group said in a statement.

Sessions, a former U.S. attorney in Mobile, said during a news
conference Tuesday that crack is considered a more dangerous,
addictive drug than powder cocaine.

"We need to convince people that we're not going soft on crime," he said.