CRACK AND POWDERED COCAINE

Toward Fairness In Sentencing

The U.S. Sentencing Commission is finally allowing federal judges to
treat crack and powdered cocaine about the same when they sentence
drug defendants.

That's welcome news. The drugs aren't that much different, but since
the 1980s sentences have been much harsher for crack dealers.
Authorities then were motivated by the violence due to crack dealers
battling for turf.

That particular violence abated years ago in most cities, but the
harsher sentences remained. The result has not been good for poor,
especially African American, neighborhoods where the cheaper crack
cocaine is more prevalent.

The disproportionate number of incarcerated black men is due to
several factors, among them the disparate treatment of cocaine
offenders. Rehabilitated inmates ready to return to society remain
jailed when many could be home, legally providing for their families.

Under the old federal sentencing guidelines, a defendant would have
to be caught with 500 grams of powdered cocaine before becoming
subject to the same punishment as someone arrested for having as
little as 5 grams of crack cocaine.

Average sentences for crack offenses will drop from 121 months to 106
months under the new sentencing guidelines. That will reduce the
federal prison population by 3,800 inmates in 15 years; saving
taxpayers $87 million in incarceration costs, according to the
Sentencing Project, a prison reform organization.

More inmates would be eligible for release if the new guidelines,
which Congress decided not to block, were made retroactive. Care must
be taken in reducing any inmate's sentence, but fairness should be
part of the equation.