COMMISSION FINDS RACIAL DISPARITY IN JAIL SENTENCES

WASHINGTON -- The percentage of minorities among the prison population
has risen sharply since the federal sentencing-guideline system was
created and minorities are more likely to serve long sentences than
their white counterparts, according to a report by the U.S. Sentencing
Commission.

The report, a 15-year review of the guideline system, also found that
defendants are staying in prison nearly twice as long as they did
before Congress called for the creation of the Sentencing Commission
and the guidelines. The review is intended to determine if the
guidelines, which went into effect in November 1987, have achieved
their goal of bringing consistency and predictability to sentencing.

The system of sentencing guidelines is up in the air as the Supreme
Court is expected to rule, possibly as soon as next week, on the
constitutionality of the guidelines. At issue is whether a judge can
increase a defendant's sentence using factors not considered by juries
or admitted to by defendants.

Before the guidelines were created, federal judges had nearly
unfettered sentencing discretion and judges within the same courthouse
handling similar cases could give widely divergent sentences for
similar crimes.

According to the report, the federal guideline system has accomplished
its goals by making sentencing more transparent and punishment "more
certain and predictable." Defendants must serve at least 85% of their
sentences now and judges must adhere to the guidelines unless they
have compelling reasons to do otherwise. In the past, defendants
served only 58% of their sentences.

However, the report said there is evidence that disparity remains in
the system, often because of prosecutors' use of plea bargains.
Evidence in the report shows that pleas understate the details of a
crime more than a third of the time. "Uniformity of sentencing" still
hasn't been "fully achieved," the report says.

Two of the more troubling findings of the commission's report focus on
race. "While the majority of federal offenders in the preguidelines
era were white, minorities dominate the federal criminal docket today"
and their sentences are longer, it says. "The gap in average sentences
between white and minority offenders was relatively small in the
preguidelines era," the report said, but began widening once the
guidelines went into effect. Now, "the typical black drug trafficker
receives a sentence about ten percent longer than a similar white drug
trafficker."

Much of the difference is attributed to mandatory minimum sentences
that Congress has legislated, setting out specific sentences for
certain crimes, usually those that are drug-related. For instance,
possession of five grams of crack cocaine, which is used more
frequently by low-income black people because it's cheaper, is grounds
for a five-year mandatory sentence. Five hundred grams of powder
cocaine, more popular among suburban whites, triggers a five-year
sentence. The average crack defendant is sentenced to 115 months,
compared with 77 months for defendants involved in powder-cocaine offenses.

The commission recommended that the cocaine sentencing disparity be
addressed by raising the crack cocaine trigger amount to 25 grams.

Dan Dodson, a member of board of directors for the National
Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said the report "says what we
all already know. My hope is someone will pay attention to it."