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Congress Passes Legislation on Cocaine Sentencing Disparity

From the HuffPo

Quote:

Today, the House passed legislation reducing the two-decades-old sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses. The Senate passed an identical bill in March and the legislation is now heading to President Obama, who supports the reform effort.

Before the changes, a person with just five grams of crack received a mandatory sentence of five years in prison. That same person would have to possess 500 grams of powder cocaine to earn the same punishment. This discrepancy, known as the 100-to-1 ratio, was enacted in the late 1980s and was based on myths about crack cocaine being more dangerous than powder. Scientific evidence, including a major study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, has proven that crack and powder cocaine have identical physiological and psychoactive effects on the human body.

The 100-1 ratio has caused myriad problems, including perpetuating racial disparities, wasting taxpayer money, and targeting low-level offenders instead of dangerous criminals. African Americans comprise 82 percent of those convicted for federal crack cocaine offenses but only 30 percent of crack users, and 62 percent of people convicted for crack offenses were low-level sellers or lookouts.

Advocates pushed to totally eliminate the disparity but ultimately a compromise was struck between Democrats and Republicans to reduce the 100-to-1 disparity to 18-to-1. The compromise also eliminated the five year mandatory minimum sentence for simple possession of five grams of cocaine (about two sugar packets worth). The repeal of that mandatory minimum is the first repeal of a mandatory minimum drug sentence since the 1970s. Overall, the compromise bill is expected to reduce the federal prison population by thousands of offenders and save an estimated $42 million in criminal justice spending over the first five years.

I'm not sure WHY we had to settle for 18-1, but OK fine I'll take it.

So basically, we're going to have more people in prison for longer.

Exactly what we need. WTG Congress!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevin (Post 1960053)

So basically, we're going to have more people in prison for longer.

Exactly what we need. WTG Congress!

How the hell did you get that out of that news story?

No...we are going to have people in jail because crack and cocaine possession are now both nearly equal under the law.

Yes...Way to go Congress!!

If Billy Jones has 500 grams of cocaine and Donte Jenkins has 500 grams of crack...BOTH will do equal time.

Billy won't get that smack on the wrists like he used to!

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid (Post 1960058)

No...we are going to have more people in jail because crack and cocaine possession are now both equal under the law.

Yes...Way to go Congress!!

No they're not equal, but much closer.

Also still probably fewer people, not more.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drolefille (Post 1960059)

No they're not equal, but much closer.

Also still probably fewer people, not more.

Yeah go it...made the appropriate change...

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid (Post 1960060)

Yeah go it...made the appropriate change...

No you're still wrong.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid (Post 1960058)

No you have it backwards. They're lowering the sentence times for crack not raising them for powder cocaine. Or more specifically they're lowering the comparative crack:powder quantity conversions.

No longer would someone with 5 grams of crack face the same punishment as someone with 500 grams of powder cocaine. Now 5 grams of crack will be treated like 90 grams of powder. Still a disparity but far better.

Another source that may be clearer.

AP:

Quote:

Under current law, possession of five grams of crack triggers a mandatory minimum five-year prison sentence. The same mandatory sentence applies to a person convicted of trafficking 500 grams of powder cocaine.

The proposed legislation would apply the five-year term to someone with 28 grams, or an ounce, of crack.

Julie Stewart, president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, said 28 grams is about what the average crack dealer might carry around.

...

She cited Sentencing Commission estimates that almost 3,000 people a year subjected to the mandatory sentence would be affected by the change. The average sentence in these cases would be reduced from 106 months to 79 months.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the main sponsor of the bill in the Senate with Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said last year close to 1,500 people were convicted for possession of somewhere between five and 25 grams of crack cocaine, subjecting them to mandatory minimum sentences.

Quote:

In the 2008 campaign, Obama said the sentencing disparity "has disproportionately filled our prisons with young black and Latino drug users." He cited figures that blacks serve almost as much time for drug offenses — 58.7 months — as whites do for violent offenses — 61.7 months.
...
Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, was the only lawmaker to speak against the bill, saying the 1986 law was enacted at a time when the crack cocaine epidemic was bringing a sharp spike in violence to minority communities and it would be a mistake to change it.

"Why do we want to risk another surge of addiction and violence by reducing penalties?" he asked. "Why are we coddling some of the most dangerous drug traffickers in America?"

Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., noted that the bill also requires the sentencing commission to significantly increase penalties for drug violations involving violence. "This way the defendant is sentenced for what he or she actually did, not the form of cocaine involved," Scott said.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drolefille (Post 1960064)

No you're still wrong.

No you have it backwards. They're lowering the sentence times for crack not raising them for powder cocaine. Or more specifically they're lowering the comparative crack:powder quantity conversions.

No longer would someone with 5 grams of crack face the same punishment as someone with 500 grams of powder cocaine. Now 5 grams of crack will be treated like 90 grams of powder. Still a disparity but far better.

ok.

Still in the ball park of what I was thinking (still a bit loopy right now)...

Im trying to find the thread that this was discussed in where we discussed the disparity of crack vs coke sentences and how that also translated to racial inequality

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevin (Post 1960053)

So basically, we're going to have more people in prison for longer.

Exactly what we need. WTG Congress!

Did I misread the article? I got the exact opposite impression.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid (Post 1960072)

It was the Arizona Immigration thread. Started on this page.

That's not it...I thought there was a thread that was devoted to that 'crack vs coke' sentencing issue...o well

naptime

Ahh, I hadn't seen that one.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThetaDancer (Post 1960076)

Did I misread the article? I got the exact opposite impression.

No, you're right. Kevin's inexplicable.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drolefille (Post 1960056)

How the hell did you get that out of that news story?

Cerebral flatulence. It's been a long day.