>Sender: >To: >X-Original-Message-ID: <004f01bf312f$b51501e0$9acf69cf@pacbell.net> >From: "Peter McWilliams" >Subject: This is your Concress on ignoreance >Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 11:12:35 -0800 >X-Mozilla-Status: 8001 >X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 > > >Pubdate: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 >Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA) >Copyright: 1999 San Jose Mercury News >Contact: letters@sjmercury.com >Address: 750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, CA 95190 >Fax: (408) 271-3792 >Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/ > >SENATE VOTES TO MAKE CRACK COCAINE LAW EVEN MORE UNFAIR > >THE U.S. Senate has responded to one of the grand inequities in the >nation's drug laws. Its solution: compound the problem. > >Under federal law, possession of 5 grams of crack cocaine invoked the same >sentence as possession of 500 grams of powder cocaine: 5 years in prison >without parole. > >Civil rights groups have complained for years of a racial bias in the >disparity, since crack cocaine is predominantly an inner city drug. Numbers >backed the argument: Last year, less than a third of the defendants in >powder cocaine convictions were black, while 85 percent of the defendants >in crack cocaine cases were African-Americans. > >The answer, said the White House and the U.S. Sentencing Commission, was to >raise the minimum amount of crack bringing on the 5-year sentence. Instead, >the Senate, on a 50-49 vote, did the opposite. It reduced the amount of >powder cocaine for the 5-year sentence from 500 grams to 50 grams. > >The Bureau of Prisons estimates the new law would add 9,163 federal inmates >over the next decade. A disproportionate number of these, too, would be >minorities. > >If the goal is consistency, the Senate has achieved it. Imprisoning more >drug users and small-time sellers would be consistent with a failed >national drug policy that Congress has fashioned. > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >Pubdate: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 >Source: San Francisco Examiner (CA) >Copyright: 1999 San Francisco Examiner >Page: A 18 - Editorial >Contact: letters@examiner.com >Website: http://www.examiner.com/ >Forum: http://examiner.com/cgi-bin/WebX > >CONGRESSIONAL CRACKS > >Far From Reforming Matters, A Move To Revise Drug Sentences Would Actually >Make A Bad System Worse - And More Costly > >THE ROAD to hell is surely paved with legislators' good intentions. >Instead, maybe it should just be paved with legislators. > >Congress is considering a proposal that must have been written by someone >on a drug-induced hallucination. > >In the interest of "reforming" federal drug laws, Congress would reduce the >threshold of possessing powdered cocaine for a mandatory five-year sentence >from 500 grams to 50. (Fifty grams is less than two ounces.) > >This maneuver is supposed to reduce racial disparity in sentencing. Not >only does it fail to do that, it would increase the number of federal >inmates by thousands and it would send to prison many more African >Americans, precisely the racial group the bill is intended to aid. And, >despite the boasts of its backers, the legislation doesn't lay a finger on >drug kingpins. > >Possessing 100 times more powdered cocaine than crack cocaine is required >for a five-year federal sentence, even though the two forms of the drug are >pharmacologically the same. That's a sore point because blacks account for >84 percent of convictions for crack. > >A group of federal judges, the U.S. Sentencing Commission and the White >House oppose reducing the powdered cocaine minimum. Instead, they all >prefer the idea of increasing the amount of crack cocaine needed to trigger >a five-year sentence. > >Seems like a bit of sanity. > >Our courts are jammed with drug defendants. Our prisons are overflowing >with inmates convicted of simple drug possession. And our streets are >increasingly filled with ex-cons whose lives have been torn up because of >over-zealous drug laws. > >Politics makes people crazy, apparently. > >No tough-on-crime politician wants to reduce punishments. Elections loom. >How much more popular to increase penalties for drug crimes while >pretending to battle the racially skewed results produced by present-day >drug statutes. > >The Republican proposal sponsored by Sen. Spencer Abraham of Michigan aims, >in his words, "to send the message loud and clear to drug kingpins and >crack peddlers that the price of business is going up, not down." > >Abraham should also point out that his bill would send costs of >incarceration up, not down. Plus, almost a third of the new convicts would >be black, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, while 48 percent would >be Hispanic. > >If Abraham and his GOP colleagues really want to send a message, they >should start a thorough re-examination and restructuring of federal drug >laws. Listen to the judges who hear these cases daily. And while we're at >it, let's throw out mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders. That >straitjacket clogs the courts and jails, too. > >The present system is insane. And locking up more people in pursuit of >racial "justice" would just make it nuttier. > > >================================================================ > >This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to > the mailing list . >To unsubscribe, E-mail to: