JUSTICE DEPT. SEEKS EQUITY IN SENTENCES FOR COCAINE

A senior Justice Department official urged Congress on Wednesday to
lower the mandatory minimum prison sentence for the sale and
possession of crack cocaine to match the punishment for powder
cocaine, eliminating arbitrary sentencing disparities that have
resulted in many more African-Americans' being jailed for longer terms.

It was the first time such a high-level law enforcement official has
endorsed legislation to eliminate inequities in cocaine sentencing.
Barack Obama, while campaigning for the White House, had called for
an end to the disparity.

"Most in the law enforcement community now recognize the need to
re-evaluate current federal cocaine sentencing policy and the
disparities the policy creates," the official, Lanny A. Breuer, the
chief of the Criminal Division in the Justice Department, testified
before the Crime and Drugs Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Under current federal laws, conviction for the sale and possession of
50 grams of crack cocaine is punishable by a mandatory minimum of 10
years in prison; it takes 5,000 grams of powder cocaine to trigger
the same punishment under the guidelines.

Mr. Breuer said that as of 2006, 82 percent of people convicted of
federal crack cocaine offenses were African-American, and 9 percent
were white. In that same year, 14 percent of federal powder cocaine
offenders were white, 27 percent were African-American and 58 percent
were Hispanic.

Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois and the subcommittee
chairman, said he was a proponent of the two-tiered sentencing
structure when it was adopted in 1986 during an epidemic of crack
cocaine use. But Mr. Durbin said that he and other early supporters,
including Joseph R. Biden Jr., who is now vice president, changed
their minds as they learned more about the drug.

"Each of the myths upon which we based the disparity has since been
dispelled or altered," Mr. Durbin said. "Crack-related violence has
decreased significantly since the 1980s, and today 94 percent of
crack cocaine cases don't involve violence at all."

Mr. Breuer and other witnesses testified that the sentencing
disparities eroded trust in the justice system, overstressed the
prison system, and diverted federal law enforcement resources from
prosecutions of organized crime and other priorities.

In 2007, the United States Sentencing Commission, a panel that
advises federal courts on appropriate prison terms based on
legislation, reduced the average sentence for crack cocaine
possession to 8 years, 10 months from 10 years, 1 month.

That change was expected to reduce the federal prison population by
about 3,800 inmates over 15 years.

So far, 19,239 offenders who were sentenced under the earlier
guidelines have applied to have their terms reduced. About 70 percent
of those motions have been granted.

Further sentencing reductions would require Congress to pass new
legislation. Mr. Breuer said he was leading a working group at the
Justice Department that was looking at how to reduce the sentencing
disparity while preserving public safety.

Although many law enforcement groups have generally sided with
reducing disparities in cocaine sentences, they disagree with the
administration about how that might be achieved.

James Pasco, a lobbyist for the Fraternal Order of Police, suggested
that prison sentences for powder cocaine should be raised to the
level of crack sentences.

"The Obama administration just says they want the disparity
addressed," Mr. Pasco said. "So somewhere between our position for
raising sentences for powder, and their position for doing away with
disparities there's room for discussion."

Jasmine Tyler, of the Drug Policy Alliance, a nonprofit advocacy
group supporting the reduction of drug crime sentences, said
increasing penalties for powder cocaine would further burden the
Federal Bureau of Prisons, which is 140 percent beyond its capacity.

"I would be shocked if that were ever vetted as a real possibility,"
Ms. Tyler said.