What will it mean for our community when our black men return from prison en masse in 2014? The justice department announced this week that it will grant clemency for low level drug offenders sentenced under mandatory minimum requirements. This addresses part of the disparity in sentencing for crack versus powder cocaine during the 1990s. But we will see returned back into the community black men who are unemployable, ineligible to vote, psychologically traumatized, many prone to violence and in some cases just scared of freedom. We may not like the Great Drug Emancipation but it’s coming to a “hood” near you.
Black unemployment is historically high; from 1963 to 2012 the annual black unemployment rate averaged 11.6 percent. Under Obama, the black unemployment rate is double that of whites at 13.4 percent. If we add to this the normal release of approximately 725,000 people from prison every year the number swells. These facts do not make employment for those incarcerated under mandatory minimum sentences for a decade or more look good. Black male imprisonment affects black male employment, a black man taken out of the work force at a young age will be at a disadvantage because his skill level will be low.
There are approximately 8,000 people serving time for crimes whose prison terms have been reduced because of the Fair Sentencing Act in 2010. Passage of this act eliminated sentence disparities in some cases of 100 to 1 in crack vs. powder convictions.
But this move by the Obama administration does help even out his dismal ratings when approving clemency or pardons. In 2013, he granted eight clemency for crack related offenses and granted 39 pardons and denying 1,333. The lowest rate of any recent US President.
