FEDERAL INMATES COULD SEE TERMS CUT

Panel Votes to Let Judges Reconsider Crack Sentencing

WASHINGTON - A day after the Supreme Court restored substantial power
to federal judges to hand down sentences below recommended
guidelines, the U.S. Sentencing Commission gave them additional
authority to reduce prison terms for those already locked up for
crack cocaine-related crimes.

The commission's unanimous vote yesterday was viewed by many legal
experts as a belated turning point in the often fractious,
two-decade-old debate over how best to deal with defendants who
violate federal drug laws. The decision could reopen almost 20,000
cases, and several members of the commission - which first urged a
change in the guidelines for crack-related crimes a dozen years ago -
called it the most important during their tenure.

Beginning in March, almost 10 percent of federal inmates nationwide
could be eligible for a reduction in their prison terms, including as
many as 279 from Maryland, according to the commission's analysis.
The measure does not apply to state courts and prisons where the vast
majority of defendants convicted of drug crimes reside.

Sentencing Commission Chairman Ricardo H. Hinojosa, who is also a
federal judge in Texas, described the change as a "modest, partial
step" toward addressing inequities in federal drug sentencing. He and
other members called on Congress to revisit the issue and rectify the
overall disparity in sentencing guidelines for crack and powder
cocaine-related offenses in a more comprehensive way.

"It is the right thing to do. There is just no way to justify the
ratio" of crack cocaine crimes being penalized much more harshly than
those involving an equal amount of powder cocaine, said U.S. District
Judge Ruben Castillo, a vice chair of the commission and former
federal prosecutor who handled cocaine cases in Chicago.

At yesterday's meeting of the presidentially appointed commission in
Washington, the Bush administration renewed its opposition to
revisiting crack-involved cases. Administration officials argued
yesterday that the potential release of thousands of inmates could
pose a public safety risk.

The Sentencing Commission responded saying that the delay until March
3 of its decision's effective date will provide the prison system
time to prepare inmates for their reintegration into communities.

Host of Factors

U.S. district judges will have the ultimate authority on whether to
reduce a defendant's prison term in resentencing. They must take into
account a host of factors, including an individual's criminal record
and potential future threat to society, according to the federal
sentencing guidelines modified retroactively yesterday.

The differences in how the federal justice system punished those
convicted of crack-related crimes versus powder cocaine has long been
framed by critics as unjustly discriminatory and racially biased. The
sentencing guidelines are based largely on the amount of drugs
involved in a crime. They often treated concentrated crack cocaine as
100 times more dangerous than cocaine in the pure, powder form.

But commission members who spoke out yesterday said that drug-weight
calculations made in the 1980s are unsupportable today. Tougher
sentences for crack-related crimes, they argued, also unjustly target
poor blacks, who are more likely to use and sell the drug. Studies
show that whites are more likely to possess the costlier powder form
of cocaine.

The commission made the guidelines for crack and powder cocaine more
equal for all cases after Nov. 1, and yesterday's vote applied the
reduced guidelines to all defendants still serving time.

Of the 19,500 prisoners who might gain from yesterday's decision, the
average defendant could see more than two years shaved off his or her
prison term, the commission concluded.

But about 3,800 affected inmates could leave prison within the next
year if judges grant them the full benefit of the change made yesterday.

"I would hope that there would be some triaging so they would deal
with those cases first," said Andrew D. Levy, a professor at the
University of Maryland Law School and attorney who practices in
federal court. Although judges will have more latitude now, the
sentencing guidelines still recommend harsher penalties in crack-related cases.

Effort Draws Praise

Though they said more needs to be done to eliminate the disparity,
advocacy groups for inmates' families, civil liberties organizations
and sympathetic lawmakers applauded the effort.

Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, predicted
that Congress would soon hold hearings to address remaining
disparities in the guidelines for crack.

"Those who break the law deserve to be punished, but our system says
that punishment must be proportionate and fair," Sen. Edward M.
Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the Health,
Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said in a statement last
night. "The current sentencing disparity between crack and powder
cocaine is neither."

In a 7-2 ruling Monday, the Supreme Court said that judges should be
given greater deference to hand out sentences below the recommended
guidelines in crack and other criminal cases if they have carefully
and appropriately articulated their reasons.

One of those reasons, the justices confirmed, could be the
differences in recommended sentences for different forms of cocaine.

The disparity also extends to state law in Maryland but only in a
limited way, said Kira Antell, policy analyst with the Maryland State
Commission on Criminal Sentencing Policy.

Maryland only differentiates in cases involving the distribution of
large amounts of cocaine. It imposes a five-year minimum penalty for
trafficking 448 grams of powder cocaine and the same for 50 grams or
more of crack cocaine.

Del. Curtis S. Anderson said he hopes to reform other parts of
Maryland law that appear to target low-level drug users unfairly with
harsh sentences. But a move to close the gap for cocaine dealers, he
said, seems less likely.

"Who wants to change the law for drug dealers? Clearly they are not
the same as users and we want to keep those people in jail," the
Baltimore Democrat said.

At yesterday's hearing, Sherry Preston, 45, of Washington expressed
gratitude after the vote. Preston's nephew from Alexandria, Va., is
serving a prison sentence of life without parole for conspiracy to
distribute crack, and she's convinced changing the guidelines in his
case could lead to his release someday.

"We don't know how it will affect him," she said. "But what I do know
is that I'm thankful that now he has a chance to come home."