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Because Freedom Can't Protect Itself.
Last month the United States Supreme Court issued Congress an invitation to reform the crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparities ruling in the case of Kimbrough v. U.S. When the Supreme Court and the United States Sentencing Commission agree with the ACLU that a sentencing law is racially biased and fundamentally unfair, it is time for a change.
The 100 to 1 sentencing disparity for crack cocaine means that, in the eyes of the law, a person caught with just 5 grams of crack cocaine, little more than a packet of sugar, receives a minimum 5-year federal prison sentence, whereas you would have to be caught with 500 grams of powder cocaine to be subject to that same minimum sentence.
According to past reports by the Sentencing Commission, the majority of people prosecuted for both crack and powder cocaine offenses have been people of color. Of the total of powder cocaine cases in 2000, 57 percent were brought against Latinos and 30 percent against African-Americans, even though the vast majority of powder cocaine users were white. Crack prosecutions are skewed even further toward racial and ethnic minorities.1
The most recent government statistics available show that in 2005, African Americans constituted more than 85 percent of those sentenced to federal prison for crack cocaine offenses, even though two-thirds of crack cocaine users are white or Hispanic.2
Tell Congress this disparity does not make sense, and it is time for a change. Ask your representative to support H.R. 4545 and S. 1711, the Drug Sentencing Reform and Cocaine Kingpin Trafficking Act.
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