PolitiFact.com, a website that I love, released today their ruling on progress in changing the disparities in federal sentencing for possession of crack and powder cocaine. The president campaigned on this issue, indicating that his administration would work to end this disparity– one that arguably impacts on minority communities very heavily. PolitiFact.com looked at the issue in 2009 and determined that it was “in the works”. It is still “in the works” in 2010 but significant positive progress has been made. Read the entire article at PolitiFact.com.
Changes in federal sentencing in this area would eventually, I think, trickle down to states. Drug sentencing is bogging down our courts and filling our jails. While significant progress must be made on the prevention and treatment side, this is a good step.
Below is a link to a very interesting article about California’s harsh “three strikes” law and its perhaps unintended consequences. Seems that even some prosecutors feel that it goes too far. Florida has different sentencing structures, some of which have similarly unexpected outcomes from time to time. Defendants can find themselves in the unenviable situation of having to lobby the state attorney prosecuting them to make sure that charging decisions are made to avoid things like the Prison Releasee Reoffender Act, which requires that individuals who have been released from a Dep’t of Corrections facility within three years of committing an enumerated felony serve the statutory maximum, day for day.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/magazine/23