• 30
  • July
    2010

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have been trying to reduce the disparities between mandatory sentences for possession of crack cocaine and powder cocaine for a decade, and they finally succeeded this week. On Wednesday, the House passed a bill to reduce the much harsher penalties a person receives for drug crimes involving crack cocaine (a drug used more commonly by blacks) than for drug crimes involving powder cocaine (a drug used more commonly by whites).

African-American lawmakers led the effort to change the 25-year-old law that currently sets the mandatory sentences for offenses involving cocaine. Under current law, a minimum sentence of five years is mandated for a first-time offense involving five grams of crack cocaine. The new law drops the five-year minimum sentence for first-time offenders. The new law also drops the mandatory sentence for repeat offenses involving less than 28 grams of crack cocaine.

According to CNN, Congressman John Conyers, D-Michigan, said that the mandatory sentences for drug crimes involving crack "had pushed the number of drug offenders in federal prisons from fewer than 5,000 in 1980 to nearly 100,000 in 2009."

The U.S. Sentencing Commission, an independent agency in the judicial branch that develops national sentencing policies for federal courts, has been calling for Congress to change the crack cocaine laws since 2002. The bill passed in the Senate in March. The House passed the bill with bi-partisan support. President Obama strongly supported the passage of the bill and is expected to sign it into law within the month during a ceremony at the White House.

 

Source:

House passes bill to reduce disparity in cocaine penalties (CNN)