Obama seeks crack cocaine sentence changes
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"Jails are loaded with people who look like me," U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, an African-American, told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing.
Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer said the administration believes Congress' goal "should be to completely eliminate the disparity" between the two forms of cocaine. "A growing number of citizens view it as fundamentally unfair," Breuer testified.
It takes 100 times more powdered cocaine than crack cocaine to trigger the same harsh mandatory minimum sentences.
Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat who chairs the subcommittee, said, "Under current law, mere possession of five grams of crack — the weight of five packets of sweetener — carries the same sentence as distribution of half a kilogram of powder or 500 packets of sweetener."
Durbin said more than 81 percent of those convicted for crack offenses in 2007 were African-American, although only about 25 percent of crack cocaine users are African Americans.
Congress enacted the disparity during an epidemic of crack cocaine in the 1980s, but the senator said lawmakers erred in assuming that violence would be greater among those using crack.
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sickinjersey
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He is just letting off pressure in the prison system.He needs to be looking at helping sick people relieve their suffering while they are struggling towards end of life issues and stop playing games.
- 2 years ago
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sickinjersey
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DougChristian
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sickinjersey:
This isn't playing games, it's a good, easy and important move.
I agree, changing the way we handle end of life issues is probably the single most important thing that he could address. Our current system is inflexible and lacks compassion for and empowerment of the patients. And it is also the single largest driver of health care costs. I think I read that 70% of all health care costs are spent in a person's last year of life, performing an endless string of painful, costly and often futile procedures. The numbers may be wrong, but the general idea is true.
But this issue is contentious and difficult to even talk about let alone reach agreement on. Hopefully he'll get there, but it's not a reason to ignore other issues especially where there is low hanging fruit.
- 2 years ago
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DougChristian
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gh8643
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Great step in the right direction. Now next step, Marijuana. Obama knows the pressure is on, just go ahead and do it now while several states are changing their laws.
- 2 years ago
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gh8643
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ClipsFC
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While politicians often support laws lengthening prison terms for various crimes, it is rarer to try to reduce sentences, in part out of concern they may appear soft on crime. But recently, some states have been moving on their own to temper long-standing "get tough" laws.
In New York last month, state leaders reached an agreement to repeal the last vestiges of the Rockefeller drug laws, once seen as the harshest in the nation. Kentucky enacted changes that would put more addicts in treatment, and fewer behind bars.
- 2 years ago
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ClipsFC
