Pubdate: Sun, 03 Feb 2008 Source: Houston Chronicle (TX) Copyright: 2008 Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Division, Hearst Newspaper Contact: http://www.chron.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/198 Author: Michelle Mittelstadt, Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/racial.htm (Racial Issues) JACKSON LEE SAYS STRICT SENTENCING COSTS SOCIETY Lawmaker Wants To Eliminate Bias In Crack Cases And Boost Treatment WASHINGTON -- The tough-on-crime crackdown of the 1980s and 1990s is getting a second look in Congress. Some lawmakers, including Houston Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, are questioning whether the soaring incarceration rates brought about by changes in federal sentencing laws have actually deterred crimes. Jackson Lee and other lawmakers argue that the sentencing-law changes enacted during the crack cocaine epidemic of the Reagan years have become a financial burden to taxpayers and a societal cost in lives lost behind bars. The longer mandatory sentences have disproportionately affected African-American defendants, the lawmakers say. Eighty-five percent of the 19,500 federal inmates convicted of crack-cocaine-related crimes are black. Jackson Lee, who serves on the House Judiciary Committee's crime subcommittee, is part of the vanguard re-examining a criminal justice system that has seen the federal prison population double from 1.1 million inmates in 1990 to 2.3 million today. During a similar period, the violent crime rate declined from 729 crimes per 100,000 people in 1990 to 469 in 2005, the FBI says. The Houston Democrat has introduced several bills on the topic, including one backed by the American Civil Liberties Union and sentencing-reform advocates. The proposal would end the disparity in prison terms for crack cocaine offenders, a majority of whom are black, and powder cocaine users, who more often are white or Hispanic. "The Supreme Court and U.S. Sentencing Commission did not make decisions about this disparity in a vacuum; they made the decision to lessen this disparity because it is clearly and profoundly unfair," said ACLU legislative counsel Jesselyn McCurdy. "But real change and real justice can only come if Congress acts now to right these wrongs." The momentum for change reaches beyond liberal lawmakers and left-leaning interest groups. The Supreme Court and the Sentencing Commission recently moved to give judges more discretion in sentencing crack cocaine offenders. Harsher sentences Still, mandatory minimum sentences prompting prison terms 100 times harsher for crack offenders than powder cocaine offenders remain on the books. Jackson Lee's bill would eliminate the sentence disparities and abolish the five-year mandatory minimum prison sentence for first-time possession of crack. It also would increase funding for drug treatment programs and focus federal law enforcement resources on major drug dealers. "There are thousands upon thousands of incarcerated persons who have been adjudged unfairly," said Jackson Lee, a former municipal court judge. "Both drugs are destructive." Blocking early release Rep. Lamar Smith of San Antonio, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, will be among those standing in Jackson Lee's way. After the Sentencing Commission's decision to allow judges to retroactively reduce crack offenders' sentences slightly -- though not less than the mandatory minimums -- Smith introduced his own legislation seeking to block any early releases. "In addition to endangering our communities, allowing the early release of criminals back into society would cripple our re-entry programs by overburdening probation officers and flood the courts with additional litigation," Smith said. A different focus Jackson Lee's proposal comes as many Democrats on the House and Senate judiciary panels and the Congressional Black Caucus are offering bills to improve prisoner re-entry programs, expand job training and increase mental health and substance abuse programs. "Focusing more money on incarceration cannot possibly reduce the crime rate. What we have to do is invest money where it makes some sense," Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., who heads the Judiciary crime subcommittee, said during a recent hearing. Scott noted that the U.S. incarceration rate of 750 adults per 100,000 population is the world's highest. The average rate globally is 166 per 100,000 persons. Jackson Lee, who also is pushing to cut prison rates by half for nonviolent federal offenders who are over the age of 45 and have served at least 50 percent of their sentence, said she is hopeful that the new Democratic majority in Congress will be able to prevail on criminal justice changes. "The question of liberty is so important to me, and the question of having faith in the integrity of the criminal justice system," she said. "There is a sense of urgency to make right which has been wrong, to improve what has not worked, and to find ways to rehabilitate, to protect the American public from crime but at the same time give people a second chance." Her views are far from universally shared. Jackson Lee acknowledged the legislation faces a strong challenge, though the congresswoman said she has high hopes of getting it into law this year. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom