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Senate Dems Support New Crack Sentences

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

February 12, 2008 Senate Dems Support New Crack Sentences By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 4:52 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Democrats on Tuesday rejected Attorney General Michael Mukasey's request to change new sentencing guidelines that would enable thousands of federal inmates to seek reductions in their crack cocaine sentences. In testimony last week, Mukasey asked Congress to pass legislation by March 3 that would block or alter the U.S. Sentencing Commission's directive to apply the possibility for reduced sentences retroactively to people already convicted of crimes involving crack cocaine. The retroactivity could flood courts with applications for early release of thousands of violent criminals, the Justice Department says. But Democrats and others have long sought ways to correct the fact that the law comes down on crack offenders 100 times harder than those convicted of crimes involving powdered cocaine, and blacks are disproportionately affected by the disparity...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on February 12, 2008 (boomark / email).