Early Release Begins for Thousands Imprisoned Under Harsh Crack Cocaine Laws

As CNN reports, under the recently enacted Fair Sentencing Act (FSA) – which President Obama signed on August 3, 2010 – prison terms have started ending early for thousands of people who were sentenced under laws that required extreme mandatory sentences for possession of crack cocaine. The FSA reduced the disparity in sentences for crack cocaine possession from 100  to 1 to 18 to 1.  The 100 to 1 disparity meant that a person with five grams of crack cocaine – the weight of two sugar packets – received the same five-year mandatory minimum sentence as someone with 500 grams of cocaine, which is about a pound.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, along with coalition partners, has long advocated the end of the crack versus powder cocaine sentencing disparity, which overwhelmingly affected African Americans. Studies had found that more than 80 percent of those sentenced for dealing crack are Black, even though two-thirds of those who use the drug are either White or Hispanic.

After passage of the FSA in 2010, The Leadership Conference and coalition partners advocated for retroactive application of the law to reduce the sentences of some 12,000 people imprisoned under the 100 to 1 mandatory minimum.  This past July, the U.S. Sentencing Commission voted to apply the law retroactively.

Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference, welcomed the progress, but also cautioned that the work is not finished.

“The hard truth remains that any disparity in cocaine sentencing is both morally wrong and corrosive to the public trust that sustains our criminal justice system,” said Henderson, following the commission’s decision.  “While we applaud this as another step forward for these communities, the only fair and just solution is a complete elimination of these disparities.”