The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey turned a new spotlight on the issue last week by asking lawmakers to send President Bush a bill by March 3 that would roll back the Sentencing Commission’s December decision, which would make the reduction in crack cocaine sentences retroactive. The commission’s decision takes effect on the March date. In return, the Justice Department said it would be willing to discuss the crack/powder disparity.

In a Feb. 7 appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, Mukasey raised the specter of hundreds or thousands of drug offenders being precipitously released across the country.

“Many of these offenders are among the most serious and violent offenders in the federal system, and their early release, without the benefit of appropriate re-entry programs, at a time when violent crime had increased in some communities, will produce tragic but predictable results,” Mukasey said.

Democrats quickly and angrily rejected Mukasey’s request, pointing out that every prisoner’s case will be reviewed by a judge, and that violent, dangerous prisoners are not going to be released early.

The Sentencing Commission estimated that some crack cocaine offenders would be slowly released over a period of 30 years, and the decision to apply the change retroactively represented “a partial step in mitigating the unwarranted sentencing disparity” between offenders dealing in crack and those dealing in powdered cocaine.

“Nobody’s taking the key, unlocking the jails and say[ing], ‘Everybody’s out,’ ” said Maxine Waters , D-Calif., at the Feb. 7 hearing. “That does not happen.”

Tuesday’s hearing of the Crime and Drugs Subcommittee will feature Sentencing Commission Chairman Ricardo H. Hinojosa and, representing the Justice Department, U.S. Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert of the Western District of North Carolina.

So far, the administration has not unveiled a detailed legislative proposal.

A Justice Department official said the administration might seek to change legislation (HR 4842) introduced in December by Lamar Smith of Texas, which would roll back the Sentencing Commission’s decision to make its guidelines retroactive so that the decision would apply only to non-violent, first-time offenders.

Mukasey “knows good and well that a Democratic Congress is not going to bring a bill forward,” Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton , D-D.C., said of Mukasey’s proposal. “He must be trying to affect the next election.”

Smith, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, previewed a potential GOP counteroffensive at the Feb. 7 hearing, asking Mukasey whether the department could furnish lawmakers with a report “as to what additional crimes those individuals have committed” after they are released.
Senate Bill

The Senate subcommittee chairman, Joseph R. Biden Jr. , D-Del., introduced a bill last June (S 1711) that would eliminate the crack/powder disparity.

The measure also would eliminate the mandatory five-year minimum sentence for crack possession. Presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York is one of three Democratic cosponsors of the bill.

Some Republicans are interested as well: Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah has introduced a bipartisan bill (S 1865) that would narrow the disparity, as has Jeff Sessions of Alabama (S 1383). Similar legislation is pending in the House.

A coalition of sentencing reform and civil rights groups is planning a day of concerted lobbying Feb. 26 in an effort to draw wider attention to the disparity issue.