Pubdate: Fri, 7 Mar 2008
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2008 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: Carol A. Brook
Note: Carol A. Brook is deputy director of the federal defender 
program for the Northern District of Illinois.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Michael+Mukasey
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Sentencing+Commission
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/crack+cocaine
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)

MUKASEY PUTS LATEST CRACK IN TRUTH ON DRUGS

This week, my phone has been ringing off the hook.

Mothers, sisters, wives and daughters, voices soft and shaking, ask 
whether their loved one might be eligible for the new retroactive 
crack cocaine reduction. When I tell them yes, they cry.

Many of those eligible for sentence reductions have no prior criminal 
history and were convicted of simple possession. Many more were 
convicted of distributing just a small amount of crack cocaine one time.

Nonetheless, U.S. Atty. Gen. Michael Mukasey recently told Congress 
that the early release of these offenders would unleash "violent 
criminals" onto our streets and pose "significant public safety risks."

His warning is the most recent in a long line of blunders that began 
with the death of Boston Celtics star draft pick Len Bias in 1986.

Since Bias' death, the onslaught of unsupported facts and overblown 
rhetoric about the relative dangers of crack versus powder cocaine 
has resulted in the disproportionate imprisonment of hundreds of 
thousands of mostly young black men.

Instead of closing its eyes to this injustice, Congress should be 
leading the movement to eliminate the disparity created by the crack 
cocaine laws.

Mukasey's warning to Congress came four weeks before the effective 
date of the U.S. Sentencing Commission's modest sentence reductions 
for people previously sentenced for crack. The commission, appointed 
by Congress, made its decision after taking testimony from criminal 
justice organizations, practitioners, academics, judges and doctors, 
who overwhelmingly agreed that the crack cocaine sentences are based 
on false assumptions, do nothing to solve the drug problem, and lead 
to unjust results.

Now, back to Len Bias.

Bias was drafted by the Boston Celtics on June 17, 1986, to the 
delight of Massachusetts residents and sports fans everywhere. He was 
then a 22-year-old African-American college student.

Two days later, he was dead. Reports that his death was caused by an 
overdose of crack cocaine set off a virtual epidemic of articles and 
television specials discussing the dangers of the previously 
little-known drug. In the three months after Bias' death, more than 
1,000 articles appeared. Time magazine made crack its "issue of the 
year." ABC later described crack as "a plague that was eating away at 
the fabric of America."

Today, although more than 65 percent of crack cocaine users are white 
or Hispanic, 82 percent of those prosecuted and imprisoned for 
federal crack cocaine offenses are African-American. They are serving 
median sentences twice as long as their white counterparts, who were 
convicted of possessing powder, not crack, cocaine. In 70 percent of 
all crack cases, low-level street dealers receive longer sentences 
than wholesale drug distributors.

These disparities exist, even though we know that the physiological 
and psychoactive effects of crack and powder cocaine are virtually 
identical. They exist even though the effects of prenatal exposure to 
crack and powder cocaine are identical. They exist even though the 
epidemic of violence and rapid spread to youth that crack was 
supposed to create, never happened.

How did things go so wrong?

As it turns out, 1986 was the same year that longtime House Speaker 
Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill was set to retire. Moved by the death of Bias 
and its effect on his constituents, O'Neill requested that tough new 
drug legislation be drafted in time to become law before the November 
congressional elections. The legislation was hurriedly written during 
the five-week summer recess. No hearings were held. No experts were consulted.

The legislation resulted in the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act, and was 
indeed passed before the elections. That act, and the 1988 act that 
followed, contain a unique 100-to-1 sentencing provision requiring 
judges to impose mandatory minimum sentences of at least 10 years for 
anyone possessing with intent to distribute just 50 grams of crack 
(about the size of a candy bar), and 5 years for simple possession of 
5 grams. People convicted of possessing powder cocaine are not 
subject to mandatory sentences unless they are convicted of 
possessing with intent to distribute 100 times more powder.

The Sentencing Commission's recent attempt to ameliorate this 
disparity touches just the tip of the iceberg. Still, it is a 
beginning. Eligible crack offenders will generally receive a one-to 
two-year decrease in their sentences. The commission calculates that 
16,700 of the 19,400 offenders potentially eligible for the decrease 
are African-American. In northern Illinois, 36 people will be 
eligible for release this year.

And, although Mukasey neglected to tell Congress, the commission's 
proposal gives the government the right to argue, in every case, that 
an offender should remain in prison because of public safety concerns.

As for Len Bias-autopsy reports show he did not die of crack cocaine. 
He died of an overdose of powder cocaine and alcohol.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake