Slashing Racist Crack Sentences Has Already Saved 16K Prison Years And Half A Billion Dollars

[88m3]

In 2010, Congress mitigated a blight on the U.S. justice system byreducing a racist drug sentencing disparity. Before the passage of the Fair Sentencing Act, crack offenses, which disproportionately ensnare African Americans, carried mandatory minimum sentences that were 100 times those for powder cocaine sentences, which are more often doled out to whites. In the compromise measure, Congress reduced that disparity to 18 to 1. While the law initially applied only to future sentences, the U.S. Sentencing Commission opted a year later toapply the new law to sentences retroactively.

Just two years later, theresults of the Sentencing Commission’s actionhave been striking. More than 7,300 inmates convicted of crack offenses have received average 29-month sentence reductions, meaning a total of 16,000 years in prison saved, according to calculations on new U.S. Sentencing Commission data by sentencing expert Doug Berman. Eighty-five percent of those who received reduced sentences were black, and Berman points out that these average reduced sentences of ten years are still “significantly higher than the average sentence imposed for any other drug crime.” Still, these reductions have already saved the Bureau of Prisons half a billion dollars by conservative estimates. That is abig chunk of changefor an agency whose total budget is $7 billion, and already exceedsinitial Bureau of Prison estimates. Violent crime rates, meanwhile, haveneared generational lows, in spite of alarmist warnings about dangerous criminals set loose.

But this is just the beginning of the impact of potential sentencing reform. For one thing, judges continue to consider petitions for reduced sentences, with the U.S. Sentencing Commission predicting it could take decades for all possible sentencing reductions to occur.

More significantly, the majority of inmates sentenced before 2010 are not even eligible for sentencing reductions, because they are serving mandatory minimum sentences that judges have absolutely no discretion to reduce. The U.S. Sentencing Commission change only affects the guidelines judges use to sentence offenders whose conviction was not subject to a mandatory minimum penalty, or perhaps who were sentenced to more than the mandatory minimum. For most other sentenced inmates, the old 100-to-1 sentencing scheme will remain in effect, absent a definitive court ruling or act of Congress declaring that the mandatory minimum sentence reduction is retroactive.

One federal appeals court panelheld in Maythat the FSA’s reduction of mandatory minimum sentences should apply retroactively, not just because that was the intent of the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act, but because failure to do so would amount to unconstitutional, “intentional racial subjugation.” But in the likely event that this ruling does not survive a full panel review and/or appeal, abipartisan billintroduced this week by Sens. dikk Durbin (D-IL) and Mike Lee (R-UT) would make that ruling the law of the land. This bill would also soften the overall impact of harsh mandatory minimum sentences by giving judges more discretion to reduce sentences. Another bipartisan proposal to mitigate mandatory minimum sentences has beenintroduced in both the House and Senateby different lawmakers. Withjudges, prosecutors, the Department of Justiceand lawmakers from both parties now imploring reform of counterproductivemass incarceration policies, the primary remaining obstacle to at least incremental change may becongressional dysfunction.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/20...-16k-prison-years-and-half-a-billion-dollars/

 

[Wild self]

Its too late. The crack epidemic is dead and the damage has already been done. If this was back in 1995, then we would have saw progress.

 

[Serious]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb-DEuwV9WM#t=1m14s

 

[Born2BKing]

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/20...-16k-prison-years-and-half-a-billion-dollars/

It was a good start but I hope they keep fighting to reduce it even more.

 

[88m3]

It was a good start but I hope they keep fighting to reduce it even more.

same man, I also hope it's retroactively applied to cases before 2010 as well.
too many people rotting away over this shyt.
everything needs to reviewed, they also need to get rid of the stigma attached to felonies
hopefully it will happen on the federal level as well eventually
got people doing twenty years for mistakes they made when they were teens and in there twenties, that's not right
they've closed a good number of prisons in ny state and are in the process of closing more currently

 

[Serious]

same man, I also hope it's retroactively applied to cases before 2010 as well.
too many people rotting away over this shyt.
everything needs to reviewed, they also need to get rid of the stigma attached to felonies
hopefully it will happen on the federal level as well eventually
got people doing twenty years for mistakes they made when they were teens and in there twenties, that's not right
they've closed a good number of prisons in ny state and are in the process of closing more currently

bu bu bu bu but prison create jobs. That's a bad look for NY, we need more people to be committing crimes...

 

[Born2BKing]

same man, I also hope it's retroactively applied to cases before 2010 as well.
too many people rotting away over this shyt.
everything needs to reviewed, they also need to get rid of the stigma attached to felonies
hopefully it will happen on the federal level as well eventually
got people doing twenty years for mistakes they made when they were teens and in there twenties, that's not right
they've closed a good number of prisons in ny state and are in the process of closing more currently

Yeah, I hope the people keep pushing for legislation that further gives felons a second chance and reduce them dumb ass 20 year crack sentences. That is some of the most unjust shyt in this country. You can kill someone and get the same time as having some crack rocks.

 

[88m3]

bu bu bu bu but prison create jobs. That's a bad look for NY, we need more people to be committing crimes...

that and stupid christian morality bullshyt, I really just want to watch the world burn

 

[Serious]

that and stupid christian morality bullshyt, I really just want to watch the world burn

chill lax bro...

I know cats on the coli go hard on christians, but some of the most sound, reasonable, intelligent, and logical peeps I know...

They even shake their heads( ) at these bible thumping bimbos in the "south"...

Not to mention some of the best ass, I've gotten were at "christian" youth retreats

 

[Domingo Halliburton]

lets just legalize drugs, like spain.

if heroin were legalized tomorrow how many of you would do it?

edit: and what you forget to mention is obama has straight backed these laws and he reiterated it the other day.

 

[88m3]

lets just legalize drugs, like spain.

if heroin were legalized tomorrow how many of you would do it?

You mean Portugal, drugs aren't legal in Spain, although abundant.

Not I, but I'd certainly have my face in something else.

 

[88m3]

chill lax bro...

I know cats on the coli go hard on christians, but some of the most sound, reasonable, intelligent, and logical peeps I know...

They even shake their heads( ) at these bible thumping bimbos in the "south"...

Not to mention some of the best ass, I've gotten were at "christian" youth retreats

all these laws are deeply rooted in their morality and punishment bullshyt, it is what it is.

 

[Domingo Halliburton]

You mean Portugal, drugs aren't legal in Spain, although abundant.

Not I, but I'd certainly have my face in something else.

youre right i missed by a couple miles.

obama backed these laws the other day.

 

[Born2BKing]

lets just legalize drugs, like spain.

if heroin were legalized tomorrow how many of you would do it?

edit: and what you forget to mention is obama has straight backed these laws and he reiterated it the other day.

What did he say? Link it

 

[88m3]

youre right i missed by a couple miles.

obama backed these laws the other day.

what did he say if you recall ?