Crack offenders hope for lighter sentences

The sentencing changes
take effect March 3.

COLUMBUS (AP) — At least 620 Ohio prisoners serving federal sentences for crack cocaine offenses could be released early because of new guidelines that bring crack and powdered cocaine sentences into closer line.

The estimate comes from the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which first decided last spring to ease crack cocaine sentences nationwide.

On Dec. 11, a day after the U.S. Supreme Court sided with federal judges who had rejected the old sentencing guidelines as too harsh, the commission expanded its new rules to make them retroactive to people currently serving time for crack crimes.

As the issue was being sorted out nationally, Ohio lawmakers were among those who acted at the state level to even out sentences for the two types of cocaine. The issue had racial overtones, since crack cocaine offenses, which had harsher sentences, involve more blacks and powdered cocaine crimes involve more whites.

The sentencing changes take effect March 3, but prisoners are already lining up to apply.

Steve Nolder, a federal public defender for the southern district of Ohio, said phone lines are ringing steadily, and U.S. District Judge Gregory L. Frost of the district said one inmate’s request has been on his desk since Dec. 17.

In its review of cocaine sentences over the past 15 years, the commission found nearly one in five drug convictions nationally was for crack cocaine.

That means a significant portion of the federal prison population could be affected by the changes, Nolder said.

The Public Defender’s Office is reviewing the commission’s estimates to see whether more prisoners might be eligible for earlier release.

Disparities between crack and powdered cocaine sentences have prompted complaints for decades. Historically, drug dealers and users could be sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for having 5 grams (about 0.18 ounces) of crack cocaine, but it took 500 grams (about 18 ounces) of powdered cocaine to prompt the same sentence.

“It should have never been a 100-to-1” disparity, Frost said.

U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus, also of the southern district of Ohio, said it appears that inmates must petition the court for early release.

To be eligible, a prisoner must have dealt with less than 4,500 grams (about 10 pounds) of crack, been sentenced to more than the federal minimum time, and not be considered a career criminal.

Each inmate’s fate will be determined by a sentencing judge, who could grant either a sentence reduction or immediate release. The commission estimates crack sentences will be reduced, on average, by 27 months.