RULES LOWER PRISON TERMS IN SENTENCES FOR CRACK

Crack cocaine offenders will receive shorter prison sentences under
more lenient federal sentencing guidelines that went into effect yesterday.

The United States Sentencing Commission, a government panel that
recommends appropriate federal prison terms, estimated that the new
guidelines would reduce the federal prison population by 3,800 in 15 years.

The new guidelines will reduce the average sentence for crack cocaine
possession to 8 years 10 months from 10 years 1 month. At a
sentencing commission hearing in Washington on Nov. 13, members will
consider whether to apply the guidelines retroactively to an
estimated 19,500 crack cocaine offenders who were sentenced under the
earlier, stricter guidelines.

The changes to the original 1987 guidelines could also add impetus to
three bills in the Senate, one sponsored by a Democrat and two by
Republicans, that would reduce or eliminate mandatory minimums for
simple drug possession.

Department of Justice officials said yesterday that applying the new
guidelines retroactively would erode federal drug enforcement efforts
and undermine Congress's role in creating sentencing policy.

"The commission is now considering applying the changes
retroactively, something that Congress has not suggested in any of
the pending bills," wrote a department spokesman, Peter Carr. "As we
state in a letter filed with the commission today, we believe this
would be a mistake, having a serious impact on the safety of our
communities and impose an unreasonable burden upon our judicial system."

If the guidelines are retroactive, crack cocaine offenders would be
eligible to apply to the judge or court that sentenced them for
reduced prison terms.

In a letter to the commission in support of retroactivity, the
American Bar Association acknowledged the possibility that "courts
will likely be inundated" by crack cocaine offenders trying to appeal
their cases under the new guidelines regardless of the commission's
decision. But the association said that applying the new rules to
current prisoners would result in "cleaner and more uniform decisions."

Although Congress sets federal criminal statutes and could have
rejected the sentencing guidelines within the 180-day period that
ended yesterday, once the new guidelines were adopted it became the
commission's sole decision to apply the new rules retroactively or not.

Some legal observers said the guideline changes were a way of shoring
up the commission's credibility in the wake of a 2005 Supreme Court
case that allowed federal judges, many of whom thought the guidelines
were too harsh, to apply lower sentences in some crack cocaine sentences.

"That created a kind of instability in the overall sentencing
guidelines," said Douglas A. Berman, an Ohio State University law
professor. "I think the commission recognized that the long-term
health of all of its guidelines depends on its ability to get
judicial adherence to their guidelines."

Federal penalties for crack cocaine were also widely criticized by
civil rights activists, politicians and the Sentencing Commission
itself for increasing racial disparities in the federal prison
population. Blacks make up more than 80 percent of federal crack
convictions, according to the commission.

Critics said it was unfair to apply longer sentences for crack
cocaine than for similar substances, including powder cocaine. Under
the current federal law, for example, the minimum sentence for
possession of 5,000 grams of powder cocaine is 10 years, the same as
the minimum sentence for 50 grams of crack cocaine.

The commission has also argued that the old sentencing rules diverted
resources away from major drug cases to low-level street dealers.

The commission proposed changes to its guidelines on crack cocaine
offenses in 1995 and was rejected by Congress, sparking riots in the
federal prison system.