USSC Approves Crack Reform for Federal
Prisoners
The
day after the Supreme Court affirmed a judge's decision to sentence
below the guideline range based on the unfairness of the crack
cocaine sentencing disparity, the United States Sentencing Commission today
voted to make retroactive its recent guideline amendment on crack
cocaine offenses.
The USSC's decision now makes an estimated
19,500 persons in prison eligible for a sentence reduction averaging
more than two years. Releases are subject to judicial review
and will be staggered over 30 years.
"The Commission's decision marks an
important moment not only for the 19,500 people retroactivity
will impact, but for the justice system as a whole," stated
Marc Mauer, Executive Director of The Sentencing Project.
"Today's action, combined with the
Court's decision yesterday, restores a measure of rationality
to federal sentencing while also addressing the unconscionable
racial disparities that the war on drugs has produced."
The Sentencing Project estimates that once
the sentencing change is fully implemented, there will be a reduction
of up to $1 billion in prison costs.
Because African Americans comprise more
than 80% of those incarcerated for crack cocaine offenses, the
sentencing reform will also help reduce racial disparity in federal
prisons.
The Commission sets the advisory guideline
range that federal judges use when sentencing defendants. In
May the Commission recommended statutory reforms and proposed
to Congress an amendment to decrease the guideline offense level
for crack cocaine offenses.
The amendment went unchallenged by Congress
and went into effect on November 1st. The Commission's action
today makes that guideline change retroactive to persons sentenced
prior to November 1st.
The guideline changes do not affect the
mandatory minimum penalties that apply to crack cocaine, which
can only be addressed through Congressional action.
"Justice demands that Congress take
the next step and eliminate the harsh mandatory minimums for
low-level crack cocaine offenses," said Mauer.
The Commission's vote comes a day after
the United States Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in Kimbrough v.
United States that a federal district judge's below-guideline
sentencing decision based on the unfairness of the 100 to 1 quantity
disparity between powder and crack cocaine was permissible.
In June, Sen. Joseph Biden introduced the
Drug Sentencing Reform and Kingpin Trafficking Act of 2007,
legislation which would equalize the penalties for crack and
powder cocaine offenses.
Biden's bill, S. 1711, aims to shift federal
law enforcement's focus from street-level dealers towards high-level
traffickers.
|