Unfortunately, I know quite a few brothers locked up in jail. Most of them are there in some way because of crack cocaine. Mostly for the sale of it. Many for the use of it. Some for both. So I’m ecstatic to hear that congress is dealing with the unjust sentences given out for crack.
Crack cocaine has caused severe devastation in my community and family. It would take a book to address the many ways in which crack has affected blacks. In fact, many have been written. One way crack has caused irreparable damage to the community is through depletion of black males who have been sucked into the prison system.
Years ago, the government declared “war on drugs.” Back in the eighties, under President Reagan, a drug czar was established. This sounds great right? Get rid of the drugs. Clean up the neighborhoods.
However, what ended up happening is black males came under attack. They were profiled, targeted, rounded up and locked away. And there was no mercy. In fact, mandatory minimum sentences made sure judges weren't allowed to have mercy on people selling crack.
So imagine 18 year old Tommie. He doesn’t do that great in school. He finds out he’s not going to get a diploma because he doesn’t pass the FCAT. So Tommie looks for another means to make a living. He gets caught with a relatively small amount of crack (but enough to know he’s probably planning to sell it). So when Tommie should be in college, he will be in prison. He gets out of jail in his mid-twenties with a felony conviction. So he can’t get a job. He doesn’t have any skills or education. Now what? Tommie goes back to selling crack. But now he has a kid or two. He gets caught again and winds up in prison during the time when he should be raising his children. His children now have no father and quite likely will end up repeating this cycle.
War is tough huh? Especially when you’re on the losing side. But all is fair in war right? Well maybe not this war. Currently, the minimum sentence for being caught with 5 grams of crack is 5 years. But guess what someone across the tracks would get for carrying 499 grams of powdered cocaine. Maybe just a misdemeanor charge and a maximum of 1 year in jail.
Some would argue this is one reason for the large numbers of black and Hispanic males in prison. They are not the largest users of crack cocaine. However, blacks and Hispanics make up 92% of those incarcerated for crack cocaine under federal guidelines. Is this fair?
The Senate recently passed the Fair Sentencing Act (S.1789) which would reduce the mandatory minimum sentence for possession of crack cocaine from 100 times that of people convicted of carrying powdered cocaine to 18 times the sentence. This could result in 4000 fewer prisoners in 10 years. You can go to www.thomas.gov to find out more about the bill. Also, to make sure this bill becomes a law as soon as possible, contact your representative through the Capitol Switchboard at 202) 224-3121. Or go to www.house.gov to email your representative. Click on “write your representative” and you’ll be directed to the right person.
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