Crack Sentences Cut

New federal sentencing guidelines took effect yesterday that will cut the recommended sentences for crack cocaine offenses and reduce the prison population.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission’s new guidelines cut the average sentence for crack possession to 8 years 10 months from 10 years 1 month, the New York Times reports. The changes took effect after Congress did not act within the specified 180-day time period to reject them.

The commission will decide Nov. 13 whether to make the guidelines retroactive, which would allow convicted crack offenders to apply for reduced sentences. The ABA supports retroactivity, the newspaper says.

Critics had contended the old guidelines were too harsh because they were much tougher on crack than powder cocaine offenses. Three bills pending in Congress go further, by reducing or eliminating mandatory minimums for crack possession.

Ohio State law professor Douglas Berman told the Times that some federal judges were already refusing to apply the tough guidelines in crack cases after a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring the guidelines to be advisory rather than mandatory.

“That created a kind of instability in the overall sentencing guidelines,” Berman said. “I think the commission recognized that the long-term health of all of its guidelines depends on its ability to get judicial adherence to their guidelines.”