Attempting to achieve absolute equity and fairness in our justice system is impossible. I could list a dozens reasons why this is so – and I doubt that many would seriously argue with me that it is so.
Still, that we can never achieve perfection is not a reason not to reach for that goal. When we see clear injustices and flaws in our system, we should do whatever we can to correct them.
For many years, I have believed that our drug laws are unfair in many ways, and ultimately cause far more pain and problems in our society than they correct. Last Wednesday, former Republican congressmen J.C. Watts and Asa Hutchinson make a powerful plea to institute these changes.
Congress created a federal criminal penalty structure for the possession and distribution of crack cocaine that is 100 times more severe than the penalty structure relating to powder cocaine. African Americans comprise more than 80 percent of federal crack cocaine offenders. That statistic does not make sense given that two-thirds of all users of crack are white or Hispanic. The disparity in the arrest, prosecution and treatment has led to inordinately harsh sentences disproportionately meted out to African American defendants that are far more severe than sentences for comparable offenses by white defendants. Indeed, the U.S. Sentencing Commission reported that revising this one sentencing rule would do more to reduce the sentencing gap between blacks and whites “than any other single policy change.”
The truth is that for years our legal system has enforced an unfair approach to sentencing of federal crack cocaine offenders. The attorney general’s approach will perpetuate this unfairness. As Judge Reggie Walton, who represents the Federal Judicial Conference, said, “I just don’t see how it’s fair that someone sentenced on October 30th gets a certain sentence when someone sentenced on November 1 gets another.”
And it makes no sense that somebody arrested for a crack cocaine offense should receive a substantially longer prison term than somebody who is convicted of a powder cocaine offense. When disparities like this exist it offends the high principles of equal treatment under the law and fundamental fairness. The disparate racial impact of the sentencing rules undermines our nation’s larger goal of instilling respect for the criminal justice system.
These changes will not secure judicial nirvana. They will, however, move us a little closer.
Sphere: Related Content
The View From the Bluff: Lance’s Economic and Finance Blog
