Crack Is Whack

Opening Statements

15.4%

October 2007 Issue
By Jenny B. Davis

The percentage of crack cocaine offenders who received the “safety valve” sentence reduction in fiscal year 2006. This provision grants certain nonviolent drug offenders with little or no criminal history the full benefit of applicable mitigating adjustments under the federal sentencing guidelines—resulting in sentences below mandatory minimum penalty levels. In the same fiscal year, the safety valve reduction was given to 48.4 percent of powder cocaine offenders. The most common reason for the disparity? Crack offenders tended to have more extensive criminal histories than powder cocaine offenders.

Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission report to Congress: Cocaine and Federal Sentencing Policy, 2007

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Posted by J.D. - Oct 13, 2007 09:12 am CST

So, we’ve all heard for years that blacks tend to use crack cocaine and whites tend to use powder.

So according to this article, blacks also tend to have longer rap sheets than whites?

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