Term Paper on "Crack vs. Poweder Sentencing Disparities"

Term Paper 6 pages (2022 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Disparities in Sentencing

As Blacks are the largest users of crack cocaine, and users tend to purchase drugs from those of like race and ethnicity, Black street dealers have been the ones among those who market drugs who have been prosecuted as a result of the punitive laws passed in 1986 that set up sentencing for dealers in crack cocaine.

On January 12, 2006, the New York Times published an editorial, saying that racial discrimination in sentencing of blacks has taken away judicial discretion and created an expensive and regretful policy of imprisoning large numbers of blacks who might have been better off given second chances. The editorial also suggested there is evidence of discrimination in the way the laws are set up and interpreted:

The laws have also discriminated against members of minority groups, who are disproportionately singled out for harsher mandatory sentences, often because of where they live.... The broader message of [the recent NJ Commission study] is that the country can't just imprison its way out of the drug problem. Coping with this issue -- while reducing prison costs -- will require a complex set of strategies, including drug abuse treatment and prevention services and increased judicial discretion in sentencing (Drugs, a-30)

The reason there has been such a wide-reaching imprisonment of blacks is because of a law passed in 1986 that took for granted that crack was much more dangerous than powdered cocaine and created harsher sentencing for the distributors on the street of this cheaper version of cocaine. However, time has shown that the effects of crack and powder are the same in psychological and psychotropic effects, and in fact they are pharmacologically identical. A 1996 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that the effects are exactly the same (Hatsukami 45). Charles Schuster, former Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, said that "when cocaine is absorbed into the bloodstream and makes it way to the brain, its effects on brain chemistry are identical to crack, and the brain does not know or discriminate between crack and powder" (Schuster 2002).

A year later, in 1997, the Sentencing Project was established and published a report of its examination of imprisonment racial disparities among the states. That report, Intended and Unintended Consequences: State Racial Disparities in Imprisonment, said that Blacks were more than seven times more likely to be imprisoned than whites. However, variations of discrimination among the states were broad, from a black/white disparity of 3.43 in Idaho to 22.77 in Minnesota. In the District of Columbia, at midyear 2001, there were 52 whites per 100,000 population in jail, compared to 1504 Blacks, a ratio of 28.92 (State 3).

The cocaine sentencing debate that followed the implementation of the 1986 law has shown the depth of the impact of crack sentencing disparity. In the 1980s crack cocaine use was covered widely by the press, due to its rapid growth in the drug market. For the first time cocaine was made available to a wider economic class because of its cheap price. By taking powder cocaine, cooking it with baking soda and water, a hard rocky substance is created that can be cracked into smaller pieces called "Crack." These "rocks" are then sold in small quantities.

The violence, the huge market and rapid addiction that followed created huge public concern. Newscasters used words like "crisis" and "epidemic" to describe the impact of crack, but this was later shown to be overblown. It was considered to be more of a social menace than powder cocaine in its effects. Congress was led to pass the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 by the political hysteria that ensued. The public and Congress believed that crack cocaine was more dangerous than powder cocaine and therefore was a greater threat. The mandatory penalties for crack offenses outlined by the 1986 law were the harshest ever adopted for low level drug offenses. What is more, the law established completely different penalties for the sale of crack and powder, believing that there were vast differences in the two drugs. Defendants found with just 5 grams of crack cocaine, the weight of 5 sugar packets, a quantity that yields about 10 to 50 doses, were convicted and sentenced to a five-year mandatory minimum sentence. Paradoxically, the same penalty involved at least 500 grams for powder cocaine, 100 times the minimum quantity for crack, which yields between 2,500 and 5,000 doses (United 17).

A both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush's administrations have rebuffed efforts to reform the crack-cocaine sentencing disparity. But widespread education efforts have given hope for reconsideration on Capitol Hill. Both parties have begun to recognize that racial disparity is involved, and that the laws also represent an inappropriate federal usurpation of state law-enforcement priorities (Mauer, 2006).

After twenty years, the results of these laws are sobering. Despite the fact that more than two-thirds of crack users are white or Hispanic, more than 80% of the defendants convicted and jailed for crack offenses are Black,. And these defendants are not the element of the drug trade that should be prosecuted. It seems 73% of crack defendants were only low-level participants in the drug trade, according to data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission, serving only as street-level dealers, couriers, or lookouts. The Commission also found that crack cocaine sentences are the largest factor in racial disparity in federal sentencing (Mauer 2006).

While the sale of only 50 grams of crack which produces about 100 to 500 doses, subjects defendants to a 10-year sentence, 5,000 grams of powder, which can yield up to 50,000 doses, yields the same sentence. Today the mandatory sentencing structure results in average sentences for crack cocaine offenses that are three and a half years longer than for offenses involving powder cocaine, two years longer than for methamphetamine and five years longer than for heroin. Crack is also the only drug carrying a mandatory prison sentence for first-time possession offense. While a person convicted of possessing 5 grams of powder will probably receive only probation, a person convicted of possession of 5 grams of crack cocaine in federal court is subject to a mandatory five-year prison term. The maximum sentence for possession of any other drug, is one year in prison, no matter if it is powder cocaine or heroin.

Supposedly, the sentencing laws Congress passed in the 1980s intended to reach high-level drug market operators: manufacturers or heads of organizations distributing large quantities of narcotics, and serious traffickers with a substantial drug-trade business (Steer, Testimony). But the sentences failed to discriminate between the roles played within the crack trade. The Commission has shown that the 5 grams limit of crack possession set by Congress for a five-year mandatory sentence would not be associated with midlevel, serious traffickers (USSC).

In 2000, the median drug quantity for a street level crack cocaine dealer charged in federal court (two-thirds of federal crack defendants) was 52 grams, enough to trigger a 10-year mandatory sentence. The median quantity for a street level dealer for powder cocaine was 340 grams, not even enough even to trigger the 5-year sentence: For quantities less than 25 grams, the average sentence for powder cocaine is 14 months and the average for crack cocaine is 65 months (U.S.)

Cocaine Sentencing for Quantities Less Than 25 Grams by Role

Importer/High-Level Supplier: 0.5

Courier/Mule 2.4

Renter/Loader/Lookout/Other 3.8

Organizer/Leader/Grower/Manufacturer/Financier/Money Launderer 5.6

Manager/Supervisor 5.9

Pilot/Captain/Bodyguard/Chemist/Cook/Broker/Steerer 6.3

Wholesaler 9.1

Street-Level Dealer 66.5

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Cocaine Offenses: An Analysis of Crack and Powder Penalties, March 17, 2002.

There is discrimination in sentencing, leading to extreme prison terms for low-level crack offenses, representing two out of every three federal crack defendants. With mandatory minimum sentences focusing solely on quantities, defendants with different levels of culpability are often lumped together. The unfortunate reality, according to the Commission, is that crack cocaine penalties "apply most often to offenders who perform low-level trafficking functions, wield little decision-making authority, and have limited responsibility" (USSC 2002, 100).

All racial and ethnic groups use drugs at similar rates. But for crack cocaine, two-thirds of users in the U.S. are white or Hispanic (Substance 1.43a). Research shows drug users usually purchase drugs from sellers of the same racial or ethnic background (Lockwood 21). Yet, people of color are disproportionately subject to the penalties for both types of cocaine. Indeed, African-American made up 82.3% of crack cocaine defendants in 2005 (see Table below) (BJS 112).

Race/Ethnicity of Cocaine Offenders

POWDER COCAINE CRACK COCAINE

55.1% are Hispanic 82.3% are Black

27.9% are Black 8/2% are White

15.4% are White 8.0% are Hispanic

1.6% are Other Races 1.5% are Other Races

SOURCE: U.S. Sentencing Commission 2005 Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics.

Compared to white drug offenders, African-American offenders have a 20% greater chance of being sentenced to prison (USSC 2004, 34). Compared to an increase of 28% for white drug offenders between 1994 and 2003, the average time served by African-Americans… READ MORE

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