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Op-ed on "Crack-cocaine sentencing injustice"

By Douglas A. Berman

Professor Mark Osler has this new op-ed titled "Crack-cocaine sentencing injustice."  Here are snippets:By 1995, hundreds of African-Americans had been prosecuted for crack offenses, but relatively few whites. In 1993, for instance, over 88 percent of the mandatory minimum sentences for crack were imposed on blacks. Aside from the obvious racial disparity, the law did not seem to be doing its job of deterring crime. The crack epidemic expanded at the same time as the prison population. Part of the problem with the 100:1 ratio was that it was an incentive to sweep up the members of a drug conspiracy who were most easily replaced.... For nearly two decades, the 100:1 ratio was part of mandatory minimum sentences and the federal sentencing guidelines...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on March 16, 2008 (boomark / email).