“One thing is very clear — we must review our federal cocaine sentencing policy,” said United States Attorney General Eric Holder at a panel discussion entitled “Rethinking Federal Sentencing Policy; 25th Anniversary of the Sentencing Reform Act” which was facilitated by the Congressional Black Caucus.
“The CBC has long spearheaded the efforts to ensure that our criminal justice system is more just [and] that it is more fair. … We at the Department of Justice join [the CBC] as we examine sentencing and corrections policies,” said Holder.
Holder made it clear in his statements that the current federal sentencing requirements for crimes involving powdered cocaine versus crack cocaine are certainly unjust and possibly racist. “This administration firmly believes that the disparity in crack and powder cocaine sentences is unwarranted. It must be eliminated.”
At the behest of President Obama, Holder is spearheading the efforts to revamp the law to end the 100-to-1 ratio in crack and powder cocaine sentencing and make it 1-to-1. Holder, the nation’s top law enforcement official and a former judge in the nation’s capital, says he knows for a fact that jurors have acquitted defendants thought to be guilty because they were aware that defendants were facing unfairly long criminal sentences.
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We must also be aware that [because of the current sentencing guidelines] the prison population continues to increase. This puts an enormous strain on correctional resources. The number of inmates in federal prisons, state prisons and local jails have quadrupled since 1980 to more than 3.2 million today.”
“Of particular concern is that [bulging prison population] inhibits the correctional officials to provide drug treatment and other services necessary to reduce recidivism.”
Holder summed up his focus with the following statement, “I think that we all have the same goal —create a criminal sentencing system that is more predictable and fair.”
