June 2007
Senator Sessions’ crack bill gets it half right
FAMM applauds Senator Sessions (R-Ala.) effort to address the inequities of current crack cocaine penalties by introducing S. 1383, the Drug Sentencing Reform Act of 2007.
With this bill, Senator Sessions, a former United States Attorney and Attorney General for the state of Alabama, attempts to make crack sentences fairer by increasing the quantity of crack cocaine necessary to trigger the five- and 10-year mandatory minimum sentences. Currently, it takes a mere five grams of crack (five Sweet n’ Low packages) to trigger a mandatory five-year prison sentence. This bill would increase the triggering quantity to 20 grams for a five-year sentence (still less than the weight of a candy bar) and 200 grams for a 10-year sentence. The bill also includes provisions that try to better account for mitigating and aggravating factors that might bear on the appropriate length of sentence.
Unfortunately, S. 1383 would also raise powder cocaine penalties in its attempt to address the 100:1 disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentences. For years, crack and powder penalties have been linked because it takes 100 times more powder cocaine than crack cocaine to merit the same sentence. FAMM believes it is time to de-link crack and powder penalties by fixing the one that is a problem while leaving the other alone. The U.S. Sentencing Commission also came to the same conclusion in the Report to Congress on Federal Sentencing Policy, released in May 2007.
Since 1995 policy makers have acknowledged that crack penalties are excessive. But no one has ever complained that current powder cocaine sentences are too lenient. The average sentence for powder cocaine convictions in 2005 was over seven years. Sixty-two percent of those sentenced were first offenders, 87 percent were nonviolent, and 85 percent were non-white. Contrary to popular myth, the overwhelming majority of those imprisoned federally for powder cocaine are not white. By lowering the quantity of powder cocaine needed to trigger the five- and 10-year mandatory minimum sentences, S. 1383 will result in larger numbers of low-level, non-white defendants going to prison for longer periods of time.
Instead of tinkering with drug weights, Congress should reform mandatory minimum sentencing laws so that drug weights alone don’t determine sentence length.
Sen. Sessions’ bill recognizes the unwarranted impact of relying on drug quantities and includes a provision that caps sentences for low level offenders such as couriers. FAMM applauds the effort to better account for role. Like Sen. Sessions, we believe that sentences should be based on traditional factors such as culpability, role in the offense, and the use of weapons or violence. Congress needs to allow the courts to consider all factors of the offense and the offender to insure a fair and proportionate sentencing system.