Source: Washington Post
Address: 1150 15th St. NW
Address: Washington DC 20071 0001
Pubdate: Wed, 30 Jul 1997; Page A22
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpsrv/WPlate/199707/30/006l073097idx.h
tml

Drug Sentencing Disparities

PRESIDENT CLINTON is moving toward greater fairness in the lopsided
system for sentencing drug offenders convicted of cocaine trafficking.
After reviewing recommendations by his attorney general and drug czar,
he is urging Congress to narrow the startling 1:100 ratio in sentencing
guidelines that makes a prison term far more likely for smalltime,
chiefly minority dealers of crack cocaine than for wealthier abusers of
cocaine in powder form.

When the horrors of innercity crack drew attention in 1980s, new
federal sentencing guidelines went after offenders with particular
fervor. Despite crack's pharmacological equivalence with cocaine powder,
there was a feeling that streetlevel sales of individual doses of the
addictive drug wreaked a most insidious violence on urban residents
especially the young. Hence a dealer convicted of peddling as little as
5 grams of pipesmoked crack got the same fiveyear sentence as an
offender caught selling 500 grams of the pricier powdered cocaine, which
is usually snorted. Tragically, 95 percent of crack offenders are
African American.

But recent research shows that the extratough crack sentences hamstring
judges, overcrowd prisons and encourage federal law enforcement to
content itself with locking up drugworld small fries rather than
striving to defeat the big distribution networks. Criminologists
conclude that the violence linked to crack has come down and that it is
characteristic of the drug trade as a whole rather than the form in
which cocaine is ingested.

In 1995 the Sentencing Commission proposed equalizing sentences for the
two types of cocaine. But that was rejected by both Congress and
President Clinton as sending the wrong message to criminals. Most
recently, it recommended modest adjustments that would raise the amounts
of crack that trigger an automatic sentence and lower the minimum
amounts for powder. President Clinton proposes that Congress simply move
the crack minimum up to 25 grams and cut the powder cocaine minimum down
to 250 grams (creating a new sentencing disparity of 1:10). It's a good
starting point. Republicans on the judiciary panels appear willing to
consider it. It's a contribution to a sensible drug policy and to racial
fairness too.

© Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company