Among defendants convicted of crack offenses, the overwhelming majority are black.
In response to a new law, the U.S. Sentencing Commission approved a temporary, emergency amendment to sentencing guidelines last week effective Nov. 1. (It will expire on Nov. 1, 2011, but the commission will consider a permanent amendment in the coming year.)
The law - the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 - was signed by President Obama on Aug. 3.
It reset the quantities of crack that trigger mandatory minimum prison sentences of five and 10 years, respectively, from five grams to 28 grams, and from 50 grams to 280 grams.
The law and amendment address what many in the criminal-justice system call an injustice.
"It further educates people about disparity and the recognition of disparity," said Leigh M. Skipper, the chief federal defender in Philadelphia.
The disparity dates to a drug-abuse law passed in 1986.
At the time, crack - a cheap way to get high - had become the rage. Congress responded with a law that produced a 100-to-1 ratio: Get caught with five grams of crack - roughly the weight of two sugar cubes - and get a mandatory five-year prison sentence. By comparison, it would take 500 grams of powder cocaine to get the same sentence.
The new law reduces the ratio to 18-to-1 but doesn't apply to defendants currently incarcerated on crack offenses.
"The first test is whether Congress will finish the job on crack reform and apply the law retroactively," so that those already incarcerated and serving stiff sentences get "due relief," said Julie Stewart, president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums.
The Department of Justice said that the law makes the federal criminal-justice system "more fair" and urged the Sentencing Commission in a letter this month to hew explicitly to the law in implementing guidelines.
