South Carolina Criminal Defense Blog

Lanny A. Breuer, chief of the Justice Department's criminal division, is asking Congress to equalize penalties for crack and for powder cocaine in the federal sentencing guidelines.

The theory behind the law, that crack — cocaine cooked in baking soda — was more addictive and led to more violent crime was soon proved false. But by then, the country was locked into a policy under which the mainly minority drug users arrested with small amounts of crack were getting harsher sentences than white users caught with far larger amounts of powder.

The United States Sentencing Commission, which sets sentencing guidelines for the federal courts, reports that in 2006, 82 percent of the people convicted under the federal crack statute were black and only 9 percent were white. Many of the people given those harsh sentences were also first-time offenders who could have been rehabilitated through community-based drug treatment programs. In addition to ruining countless young lives, the policy undermined trust and confidence in the criminal justice system.

Congress has repeatedly ignored calls to equalize sentencing, partly because Justice Department officials in previous administrations have argued against it. This week, however, Lanny A. Breuer, the new chief of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, told lawmakers that it was time to revisit the crack/cocaine disparity.