Crack sentence reform is still burdened by racism

[marmar]

from AlterNet:



Posted by Devona Walker at 3:55 pm
August 11, 2010

Crack sentence reform is still burdened by racism
Posted by Devona Walker on @ 3:55 pm


How does the Black Community recover from nearly 25 years of racist sentencing laws?

The Obama Administration and the U.S. Congress have finally narrowed the infamous crack/powder cocaine disparity. It’s a good common sense bit of governing, but it is only a start, and much is left to do to reverse the damage of nearly 25 years of such a racist and draconian law.

It was originally enacted back in 1986 and created a 100 to 1 sentencing difference between offenders arrested with crack as opposed to powder cocaine. That meant distribution of just five grams of crack cocaine (about a thimble full) carried a five year mandatory minimum sentence, while it took 500 grams of powder cocaine to trigger the same five year sentence.

In addition, crack cocaine (not meth, not even heroin) is still the only drug for which there is a federal mandatory minimum sentence for mere possession. By comparison, simple possession of any quantity of any other substance by a first time offender – including powder cocaine – is a misdemeanor offense punishable by a maximum of one year in prison.

This disparity has directly led to the massive black prison population as 82 percent of those sentenced under federal crack cocaine laws are black, and only 8.8 percent are white even though an estimated two-third of crack users are white. Since the enactment of this law, the black prison population has grown five times the rate of the white prison population. Even though the justification for this disparity was that the laws would target violent, high-level drug traffickers, a reports by the U.S. Sentencing Commission indicates that nearly two-thirds of those arrested were low-level users. Only 1.8 percent of those arrested under these exceptionally harsh guidelines have been high-level suppliers. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/08/11/crack-sentence-reform-is-still-burdened-by-racism/

[laughingliberal]

1. K & R nt

[madmax]

2. All types of sentencing imho. nt