Crack Cocaine Sentencing

Paper Summary:

This paper argues that racial discrimination in the sentencing of blacks has taken away judicial discretion and created an expensive and regretful policy of imprisoning large numbers of blacks, who might have been better off given second chances. The author points out that the passage of the crack cocaine law in 1986 made black defendants much more liable to spend time in prison if they were street dealers of crack cocaine rather than if they were dealing powder cocaine, which is essentially the same drug. The paper emphasizes that crack cocaine sentences are the largest factor in racial disparity in federal sentencing. Includes charts.

From the Paper:

"The cocaine sentencing debate that followed the implementation of the 1986 law has shown the depth of the impact of crack sentencing disparity. In the 1980s, crack cocaine use was covered widely by the press, due to its rapid growth in the drug market. For the first time cocaine was made available to a wider economic class because of its cheap price. By taking powder cocaine, cooking it with baking soda and water, a hard rocky substance is created that can be cracked into smaller pieces called "Crack." These "rocks" are then sold in small quantities."

Sample of Sources Used:

• BJS, [Bureau of Justice Statistics] Compendium of Federal Justice Statistics, 1994 (Washington, DC: March 1998) Table 6.11, p. 85.
• BJS, Compendium of Federal Justice Statistics, 2003. Washington, DC: Oct. 2004. Table 7.16, p. 112.
• Compendium of Federal Statistics, 2003. Oct. 2004, Table 7.16, p. 112.
• "Drugs and Racial Discrimination." New York Times; Editorial Desk, Late Edition - Final, Section A, Page 30, January 12, 2006.
• "Federal Crack Cocaine Sentencing: Race and class penalties in crack cocaine sentencing." The Sentencing Project. Washington, D.C. 2007, <http://www.sentencingproject.org/Admin/Documents/publications/dp_cracksentencing.pdf>.

More papers on Crack Cocaine Sentencing:

• Analytical Essay # 32666 : "Crack Cocaine: A Crying Shame in the Black Community"
• Term Paper # 148741 : "Crack Cocaine vs. Powder Cocaine Policy"
• Essay # 13006 : "Cocaine Sentencing"

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