Cocaine sentencing disparity up for potential reform

A few interesting bills are pending in Congress that seek to address in various ways the disparity in sentencing between crimes involving crack cocaine and crimes involving powder cocaine. As has been noted eleventy bazillion times, the disparity essentially considers equivalent amounts of crack cocaine to be more serious crimes, which unfairly penalizes the demographic that tends toward crack cocaine. As I wrote earlier this year when a Supreme Court case was in the works on this subject:

Crack is primarily an urban drug used by minorities; consequently four fifths of crack cocaine convictions affect blacks, while only a quarter of those convicted for powder cocaine are black; however, the punishment for crack cocaine is an order of magnitude more harsh than similar punishment for power cocaine.

And as noted in an article about that case:

The issue grew out of a 1986 law that was passed in response to violent crimes committed to get money to feed crack habits. The law includes what critics have called the 100-to-1 disparity: Trafficking in 5 grams of [crack] cocaine carries a mandatory five-year prison sentence, but it takes 500 grams of cocaine powder to warrant the same sentence.

Well, at long last we have not one, but three separate bills wending their way through Congress that each attempt to sort this out. The Drug Policy Alliance does a bang-up job of analyzing each bill and making a recommendation as to which bill deserves support:

Three U.S. Senators have already introduced reform bills - Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Senator Joe Biden (D-DE). The Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), has pledged to have hearings on the issue in September. There is growing bi-partisan support for reform.

The Sessions bill (S. 1383) would reduce the crack/powder sentencing disparity to 20 to 1 by lowering penalties for crack cocaine and raising penalties for power cocaine. Since Hispanics are disproportionately prosecuted for powder cocaine offenses, the practical effect of the Sessions bill would be to reduce racial disparities for blacks, while increasing them for Hispanics. The Hatch bill (S. 1685) would reduce the disparity to 20 to 1 by lowering penalties for crack cocaine and leaving powder penalties unchanged (it is, thus, significantly better than the Sessions bill). The Biden bill (S. 1711) would completely eliminate the disparity by lowering crack penalties to equal those of powder.

Of the three bills, Senator Biden's bill is the only one to completely eliminate the disparity; and it would accomplish this without subjecting more Americans to draconian mandatory minimum sentences. His bill is the one the Senate should pass.

My Google fu has failed me in determining when these bills are expected to reach a deliberation stage, but the Drug Policy Alliance still has one of their automated letters that you can send to your senator to indicate support. Seems like it's not too late to chime in.