(Washington) - Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) applauded House passage of S. 1789, the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010. The Fair Sentencing Act will reduce sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine from 100-to-1 to 18-to-1. Chairman Conyers issued the following statement today in support of the bill:
Today’s historic vote on S. 1789, the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 is long overdue. Over more than twenty years, the myths about the effects of crack cocaine compared to powder cocaine have proven to be unfounded.
The belief that crack cocaine causes violence has not been found to be true. Scientific and medical research has also concluded that crack and powder cocaine have essentially the same effects on a person’s brain.
While many of the dangers and consequences thought to be associated with crack cocaine did not materialize, the crack cocaine law and other federal drug laws have resulted in staggering increases in the number of federal drug offenders in prison.
Since 1980, the number of offenders in federal prisons for drug offenses has increased from less than 5,000 to almost 100,000 in 2009. In 2009, drug offenders represent 52% of all federal inmates.
And African Americans serve almost as much time in federal prison for a drug offense (58.7 months) as whites do for a violent offense (61.7 months) – largely due to sentencing laws such as the 100-to-1 crack-powder cocaine disparity.
Department of Health and Human Services data demonstrates that drug use rates are similar among all racial and ethnic groups.
For crack cocaine, two-thirds of users in the U.S. are white or Hispanic. Despite these facts, people of color are disproportionately subject to the penalties for both types of cocaine. Indeed, 81.8 percent of crack cocaine defendants in 2006 were African American.
Four reports issued by the U.S. Sentencing Commission to Congress on the federal cocaine sentencing policy have all urged Congress to change the current federal crack cocaine law.
The Commission report in 2007 reiterated its 2002 findings that the "current severity of crack cocaine penalties mostly impacts minorities," and that "the current penalties overstate the harmfulness of crack cocaine as opposed to powder cocaine."
After many years, today’s vote will finally do what the Commission and many Members of Congress have recommended for many years – and that is to fix this unjust disparity in the federal crack cocaine laws.
I’d like to thank Chairman Bobby Scott and Reps. Shelia Jackson-Lee, Maxine Waters, Charlie Rangel, and Mel Watt for their leadership and perseverance over the past two decades on this effort.
And I also appreciate the support of Dan Lungren, James Sensenbrenner, Ron Paul, and others for their leadership in making this a bipartisan effort.
S. 1789 passed the House by voice vote and will be signed into law by the President.
