PANEL ALLOWS RETROACTIVE EASING OF DRUG PENALTIES

Opposed by Bush Administration

Crack Cocaine Offenders May Seek Reduced Jail Time Starting March 3

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Sentencing Commission voted unanimously Tuesday
to allow some 19,500 federal prison inmates, most of them black, to
seek reductions in their crack cocaine sentences.

The commission, which sets guidelines for federal prison sentences,
decided to make retroactive its recent easing of recommended sentences
for crack offenses. Roughly 3,800 inmates could be eligible for
release from prison within a year after the decision's March 3
effective date. Federal judges will have the final say whether to
reduce sentences.

The commissioners said the delay would give judges and prison
officials time to deal with public safety and other issues.

U.S. District Judge William Sessions of Vermont, a commission member,
said the vote on retroactivity will have the "most dramatic impact on
African American families." A failure to act "may be taken by some as
particularly unjust," Sessions said before the vote.

The seven-member commission took note of objections raised by the Bush
administration, but said there is no basis to treat convicts sentenced
before the guidelines were changed differently from those sentenced
after the change.

The administration restated its opposition to the easing before the
commission voted.

"Our position is clear," said Attorney General Michael Mukasey at a
news conference. "We oppose it."

Mukasey said the convicted crack offenders were sentenced under an
existing standard and to change that standard retroactively dismisses
any mitigating factors the sentencing judge considered when deciding
how long a prison term to set. In addition, the release of inmates
would cause problems for communities whose probation and supervisory
systems are not ready to receive crack offenders, he said.

In two decisions Monday, the Supreme Court upheld judges who rejected
federal sentencing guidelines as too harsh and imposed more lenient
prison terms, including one for crack offenses.