While you’re wringing your hands about our dysfunctional government and wondering why the Obama administration isn’t tougher on the banks, don’t forget to stop and smell the roses. In July 2010, Congress passed the The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 which vastly reduced the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses. Then, earlier this year, the U.S. Sentencing Commission decided to make the decision retroactive. Yesterday, that change went into effect.
The U.S. Sentencing Commission voted this summer to make the reduced crack penalties retroactive, which means more than 12,000 current inmates are eligible to request reduced sentences.
The retroactivity took effect Tuesday. The Sentencing Commission estimates that inmates will have an average of three years chopped off their sentences. An estimated 1,800 inmates became eligible for release immediately because they had already served enough time, and prosecutors did not object to their release.
Critics of the old sentencing system say it was unfair to African-Americans, who make up the majority of those convicted of possessing and distributing crack.
“This really has been one of the great stains on our federal criminal justice system for 20 years or more,” said Michael Nachmanoff, the federal public defender for the Eastern District of Virginia. “This disparity between the punishment for crack cocaine and powder was really unjustified.”
Needless to say, it takes political courage to be responsible for the sudden release of 1,800 mostly black felons who have done hard time in federal prisons. That’s why it’s a small miracle that it is happening at all. It’s inevitable that some of these parolees will commit violent crimes. Our prisons don’t tend to churn out model reformed citizens. It’s more like institutionalized gangsterism, where even if you didn’t belong to a gang before you were imprisoned, you probably joined one to survive on the inside. Prison policy is incredibly hard to get right, but we certainly have it wrong. And that’s the problem, not that people who received unjustly-long sentences are getting an early release. However, the eligible parolees’ records are being reviewed by judges in an effort to ensure that they won’t present a danger to the community.
There is still an 18:1 disparity between crack and powder (down from 100:1), but the new 5-year mandatory minimum sentence doesn’t kick in until someone is caught with 28 grams of crack (up from 5 grams). In effect, this will limit arrests to true dealers and largely eliminate the racial disparity of our cocaine sentencing guidelines.
It will be easy to demagogue this reform. Just wait for the first Willie Horton ad. Remember to have the back of the politicians who had the courage to do the right thing.
“Remember to have the back of the politicians who had the courage to do the right thing.”
HA! This crowd? yeah right.
I certainly appreciate and have been spreading the news wherever I can.
Which crowd?
Booman, I think you have a good point here. Very few pols of any stripe have the guts to deal with this. It does deserve support. But I have to wonder, what kind of support do you want people to show the president? Do you just want people to defend him in arguments? Volunteer for him next year? Any or all of the above?
What do you think will be the most important thing people could do?
Give him the same support Democrats gave Bill Clinton AFTER he REJECTED the Sentencing Commission’s Guidelines to reduce the disparity between crack and powder cocaine. If Democrats could unconditionally support a Democratic President that LITERALLY threw away thousands of young, black, first-time offenders to win re-election campaign, they can certainly support President Obama who did the right thing here.
In some red states when, the 19 year old caught with 5g of crack 8 years ago finishes with parole they will be able to get a license to carry, yet their right to vote will not be restored.
thanks for reminding us, BooMan
I’m not so sure it’s that hard. We’re just not interested in getting it right. In fact, we actively try to get it wrong.
1.) We continue to increase poverty and increase wealth disparity, and fund schools with property taxes. No schooling = no job = resorting to crime and/or drug dealing for income.
2.) This wealth disparity forces mamma or papa to have 3 “uniquely American” jobs for their children to be fed, while they will never be home to be parents or role models.
So those are just by-products, but then there’s the disgusting drug policy, the corruption of police, and the for-profit prisons — which are essentially torture chambers, and yet no one seems to care unless it’s a prison in Cuba.
I still don’t understand why this Civil Rights issue — yes, it is a Civil Rights issue — isn’t higher on the list of things liberals focus on. So while this is a fantastic development, and I welcome it, don’t expect people to be clapping louder when most liberals in the blogosphere never put these issues high up on things they care about in the first place. It also doesn’t help that the president is making other steps backward by cracking down on medical marijuana.