Shorter Crack Sentences To Be Retroactive
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 March 3 effective date of Tuesday's decision. 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.
Inmate family representatives and other advocates of retroactive easing said a Supreme Court decision Monday could only improve chances the commission would dismantle yet another portion of the long-criticized disparity in sentences for crack and powder cocaine offenses. Crack is predominantly used by blacks; powder cocaine, predominantly by whites.
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.
In the crack case, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's majority opinion said Derrick Kimbrough's 15-year sentence was acceptable, although guidelines called for 19 to 22 years. "In making that determination, the judge may consider the disparity between the guidelines' treatment of crack and powder cocaine offenses," Ginsburg said.
Kimbrough is black.
So are 86 percent of the 19,500 inmates who might see their prison terms for crack offenses reduced if the commission approves retroactive easing. By contrast, just over a quarter of those convicted of powder cocaine crimes last year were black.
The sentencing commission recently changed the guidelines to reduce the disparity in prison time for the two crimes. New guidelines took effect Nov. 1.
Under the commission's plan, retroactive sentence reductions would not be automatic. A judge would have to review each inmate to decide whether a reduction was merited.
"The Kimbrough decision is a tremendous victory for all who believe that the crack and powder cocaine disparity is unjust," said Mary Price, vice president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums.
Kimbrough's case, though, did not present the ultimate fairness question. Congress wrote the harsher treatment for crack into a law that sets a mandatory minimum of five years in prison for trafficking in 5 grams of crack cocaine or 100 times as much powder cocaine.
Seventy percent of crack defendants get the mandatory minimum.
Kimbrough is among the remaining 30 percent who, under the guidelines, are supposed to receive even more prison time for trafficking in more than 5 grams of crack.
Neither the court's decision nor the commission's guidelines affect the minimum sentences, which only Congress can alter.
"The ruling isn't going to immediately guarantee crack cocaine convicts a slap on the wrist," says CBS News senior legal analyst Andrew Cohen. "In fact, judges still can throw the book at them with very significant penalties that go far beyond what someone convicted of a powder cocaine offense would receive. But the ruling does give judges who want to lower a sentence here or there the leeway to do so."
Calling the court decision a "minor fix," U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton of Washington, said, "The ultimate fix has to be done by Congress." Last month, Walton endorsed retroactive easing of the guidelines on behalf of the Criminal Law Committee of the federal judiciary.
In previous years, the sentencing commission reduced penalties for crimes involving marijuana, LSD and OxyContin, which are primarily committed by whites, and made those decisions retroactive.
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. 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 March 3 effective date of Tuesday's decision. 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.
Inmate family representatives and other advocates of retroactive easing said a Supreme Court decision Monday could only improve chances the commission would dismantle yet another portion of the long-criticized disparity in sentences for crack and powder cocaine offenses. Crack is predominantly used by blacks; powder cocaine, predominantly by whites.
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.
In the crack case, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's majority opinion said Derrick Kimbrough's 15-year sentence was acceptable, although guidelines called for 19 to 22 years. "In making that determination, the judge may consider the disparity between the guidelines' treatment of crack and powder cocaine offenses," Ginsburg said.
Kimbrough is black.
So are 86 percent of the 19,500 inmates who might see their prison terms for crack offenses reduced if the commission approves retroactive easing. By contrast, just over a quarter of those convicted of powder cocaine crimes last year were black.
The sentencing commission recently changed the guidelines to reduce the disparity in prison time for the two crimes. New guidelines took effect Nov. 1.
Under the commission's plan, retroactive sentence reductions would not be automatic. A judge would have to review each inmate to decide whether a reduction was merited.
"The Kimbrough decision is a tremendous victory for all who believe that the crack and powder cocaine disparity is unjust," said Mary Price, vice president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums.
Kimbrough's case, though, did not present the ultimate fairness question. Congress wrote the harsher treatment for crack into a law that sets a mandatory minimum of five years in prison for trafficking in 5 grams of crack cocaine or 100 times as much powder cocaine.
Seventy percent of crack defendants get the mandatory minimum.
Kimbrough is among the remaining 30 percent who, under the guidelines, are supposed to receive even more prison time for trafficking in more than 5 grams of crack.
Neither the court's decision nor the commission's guidelines affect the minimum sentences, which only Congress can alter.
"The ruling isn't going to immediately guarantee crack cocaine convicts a slap on the wrist," says CBS News senior legal analyst Andrew Cohen. "In fact, judges still can throw the book at them with very significant penalties that go far beyond what someone convicted of a powder cocaine offense would receive. But the ruling does give judges who want to lower a sentence here or there the leeway to do so."
Calling the court decision a "minor fix," U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton of Washington, said, "The ultimate fix has to be done by Congress." Last month, Walton endorsed retroactive easing of the guidelines on behalf of the Criminal Law Committee of the federal judiciary.
In previous years, the sentencing commission reduced penalties for crimes involving marijuana, LSD and OxyContin, which are primarily committed by whites, and made those decisions retroactive.
I sure don''t envy law enforcement at this time. I have every respect for them in having to deal with these lost souls.
We should never lock anyone up for over 5 years and unless we mean for them to stay there for life or until they are too old to be a threat. Otherwise, we just keep repeating the cycle. Watch the crime rates rise when these people get out. What choice will they have to rehabilitate when most won''t hire them and since they are "in the system" they will be continually hounded by other criminals and police who want information --and can set them up or frame them if they don''t cooperate. A nightmare for us all.
The reason they are incarcerated is because alternate ''treatment'' has failed and these people present a danger to society because of their willingness to do anything for a fix. Thats why we lock certain people up, it is like that every where really, those that cannot get along in society get removed from the society.
Besides, stop treating this problem is a disease because it is not. It is a choice that they make to become addicts. People with actual diseases such as Alzheimer''s on the other hand, did not chose their ailment.
More on point; hurray more crackheads on the street, yeppi temporarily. There is some amusement to this though in that the justice system is always first to complain about the backlog but now this will do nothing but create a huge backlog because the crackheads that get released will very shortly end up back in prison... This whole reduction in sentences and applying it retroactively really makes sense...
But America is a wicked backward place. We would rather incarcerate than educate, confine than cure citizens.
In the so-called ''land of the free'', we have the highest imprisoning of any citizens on the planet.
But as we all know, and as was proven yet again in the consensual s*x case in Georgia, once they get a "Black" person in jail, even if it is shown that the sentencing process was improper, or if the sentencing laws change, or as in Hurricane Carter''s case, if that person is later proven innocent, the US is extremely allergic to the notion of letting them out again.
You can blame southerners, neocons, capitalism or anything you want to blame. But the truth is that drug addiction is self inflicted. They did it to themselves. They can''t say they thought taking dope was a good healthy thing. Every grade school kid in this backward society knows dope is bad. The crackheads knew it was bad before they took it but they took it anyway.
Posted by neoconism at 08:45 PM : Dec 11, 2007
So which do you use - crack, alcohol, or both?