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Obama signs law targeting disparities in crack and powede cocaine cases

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

Obama signs law targeting disparities in cocaine cases August 3, 2010 USA Today President Obama signed a law today designed to change the way that crack and powder cocaine are handled in court The Fair Sentencing Act is "a bipartisan bill to help right a longstanding wrong by narrowing sentencing disparities between those convicted of crack cocaine and powder cocaine," Obama said last week in a speech to the National Urban League. "It's the right thing to do." The law targets what the Drug Policy Alliance calls the problem of the 100-to-1 ratio. Previously, a person caught with 5 grams of crack cocaine would receive a mandatory sentence of five years -- that same person would have to possess at least 500 grams of powder cocaine to earn the same sentence...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on August 05, 2010 (boomark / email).