On November 1, 2010 new federal guidelines went into effect that will allow judges to choose from a range of sentencing options for those convicted of possession of a small amount of crack cocaine. The amendment is temporary, but advocates believe that when the Sentencing Committee meets in May to vote on the changes, the new guidelines will remain. Previous sentencing guidelines mandated that a person who was convicted of possession or selling five grams of crack would be given a sentence of five years in prison. Opponents of the old sentencing guidelines claimed that those guidelines were unfair, particularly to African-Americans, because those in possession of a larger amount of powder cocaine did not face such harsh sentences. The new guidelines raises the amount of crack to 28 grams for the same five year sentence, and from 50 grams to 280 grams for a ten year sentence.
The new guidelines are good news for some defendants, but bad news for others. Congress made it known to the Sentencing Commission that they wanted harsher penalties for those defendants that in the commission of their crime, used, threatened, or directed the use of violence, bribed or attempted to bribe a law enforcement officer, or maintained a premise to distribute or manufacture drugs. Those aggravated factors add a two-level increase at sentencing. The new guidelines are not retroactive, but organizations such as Families Against Mandatory Minimums vow to work to get Congress to apply the same guidelines to those sentenced before November 1, 2010.
Critics of the new guidelines claim that they do not do much to change sentencing practices because they only affect small-time drug users or sellers, and not the drug kingpins. But, there will be a decrease in the length of incarceration for these small-time offenders, and that will add up to millions of dollars of saved taxpayer dollars. More importantly, human lives will be affected. A person convicted of possessing five grams of crack will no longer be warehoused in prison for five years, and hopefully, a fraction of the money that would have been spent on incarceration can now be allocated to substance abuse programs, job training, and education to help strengthen communities.
Sources: Denver Post, Families Against Mandatory Minimums
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