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Washington Post editorial on "Concaine Justice"

By Douglas A. Berman

Today's Washington Post includes this editorial on federal crack/powder concaine sentencing reform.  Here are snippets: This year marks the 25th anniversary of legislation that created mandatory minimum sentences and established a 100-to-1 sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine.  Over those 25 years, something close to consensus has emerged that the imbalance is unfair and possibly discriminatory.  Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has called for closing the gap, commenting that "we all know that this egregious difference in punishment is simply wrong."  Yet it has persisted, filling America's prisons and undermining many people's faith in the criminal justice system.... Such stringent rules have put thousands behind bars: Of current federal prisoners, 55 percent are serving time for drug offenses...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on July 26, 2009 (boomark / email).