WASHINGTON – The Congressional Black Caucus [CBC] invited U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and other notables to the U.S. Capitol to urge Congress to change federal sentencing guidelines that significantly impact African Americans, including mandatory minimums, the disparity in crack and powder cocaine sentencing and the Three Strikes and You’re Out law. The CBC leaders, including Maxine Waters [D-Calif.] and Sheila Jackson-Lee [D-Texas] hosted the “Rethinking Federal Sentencing” Symposium along with the community-based advocates The Sentencing Project and Families against Mandatory Minimums. The groups’ charge that while the laws have miserably failed in their objectives to reduce drug trafficking and make communities safer, they have grossly impacted minority demographics.
Holder, the first African American to lead the Department of Justice, is following up on President Barack Obama’s campaign promise to alter decades-old federal laws that have: failed to deter crime, caused atrocious prison overcrowding, disproportionately incarcerated young black men, and has helped to bankrupt states across the country — especially California.
“The current federal sentencing system continues to be a target for criticism from judges, [academicians], and attorneys across our nation. These criticisms range from concerns about mandatory minimums to the use of acquitted conduct in sentencing decisions,” Holder said. “We need a sentencing system that is both equitable and fair. The number of inmates in federal prisons, state prisons, or local jails has quadrupled since 1980, reaching more than 2.2 million today. Of particular concern — the burgeoning prison population limits the ability of corrections officials to provide drug treatment and other services necessary to minimize recidivism,” Holder said.
As a result, the attorney general recommended the following studies be undertaken this year:
– The structure of federal sentencing, including the role of mandatory minimums
– The Justice Department’s charging and sentencing policies
– Alternatives to incarceration and re-entry
– Eliminating the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine
– An examination of other unwarranted disparities in federal sentencing
The CBC and FAMM went onto say that “the stars are aligned,” with Obama as president and Holder as attorney general, to put muscle behind the effort to change federal sentencing laws. – terry shropshire
