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Nothing symbolizes the conflicted state of U.S. race relations more than the tortured odyssey of crack cocaine. Federal sentencing enhancements for the drug, which we now know is pharmacologically indistinguishable from powder cocaine, date to the Reagan administration. They have had an astonishingly injurious impact.
Although surveys show that most users of cocaine, in all its forms, are white, African Americans and Latinos account for 96 percent of crack convictions, most of them low-level street dealers. Because the mandatory penalties are so harsh--possession of 5 grams yields a minimum sentence of five years--African Americans with crack raps are now serving as much time in federal prison as whites convicted of violent offenses. Federal District Judge Robert Sweet calls it "Jim Crow justice."
The U.S. Sentencing Commission has proposed relaxing special penalties for crack since 1991, arguing that it would do more to reduce racial inequality in criminal justice "than any other single policy change." Yet Congress has declined to act for a generation. With the election of Barack Obama and Democratic majorities in both houses, reformers hoped for a breakthrough at last. But when the Senate finally reached a deal on the Fair Sentencing Act in March, it only partly closed the penalty gap. Under the current rules, crack possession is treated 100 times more severely than powder possession, based on drug weight; under the new rules, which the House is expected to approve before the summer recess, crack possession will be treated 18 times more severely.
"I gave a little, and they gave a little," said Sen. Richard Durban (D-Ill) of his negotiations with Republicans, who insisted on maintaining unequal sanctions. The result is a sort of progress, but it means that tens of thousands of crack defendants, the lion's share of them young black men, will continue receiving longer prison terms than their coke-snorting counterparts--and with no justification supported by evidence. Seven score years after the end of slavery, America still can't do better than halting steps toward equality.
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