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Good fix for cocaine sentencing disparity
Loading ...House Republicans joined Democrats this week in supporting a dramatic change to federal sentencing guidelines for possession of crack cocaine, a major step toward correcting the lopsided imprisonment of blacks for drug offenses. The new sentencing bill, already approved by the Senate, should help dramatically reduce prison populations and end a disgraceful era of racial injustice in this country.
Since 1986, when cocaine trafficking and violence was rampant in many inner-city areas, federal law has imposed a 100-to-1 ratio in the sentencing emphasis placed on crack possession compared with powder cocaine. That means a person need only possess 5 grams of crack to trigger a mandatory five-year federal prison sentence, whereas it would take 500 grams of powder cocaine to merit the same sentence.
Wednesday’s passage of the Fair Sentencing Act reduces this disparity to a still-high 18-to-1 ratio. But President Barack Obama is almost certain to sign the bill, having argued during the 2008 campaign that the current disparity “disproportionately filled our prisons with young black and Latino drug users.”
Continue Reading at Dallas Morning News.
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