Alabama Townhall meeting on Discriminatory Federal Drug Sentencing

The ACLU Washington Legislative Office and the ACLU of Alabama will host a townhall meeting in Birmingham, Alabama on the need to repair the current discriminatory federal drug sentencing policy. The event is open to the press, and ACLU speakers will be available afterwards for interviews. Speakers include: -Senator Jeff Sessions (R - AL) (invited) -Ed Vaughan, President, Alabama State Conference NAACP -State Representative Artur Davis, (D - Birmingham) -Dr. Ralph Hendrix, University of Alabama at Birmingham -Deborah Vagins, Policy Council for Civil Rights, ACLU Washington Legislative Office -Barry Hargrove, Field Organizer, ACLU Washington Legislative Office Currently, distributing just five grams of crack carries a minimum five-year federal prison sentence, while distributing 500 grams of powder cocaine carries the same sentence. Despite repeated recommendations by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, Congress has not addressed this 100:1 sentencing disparity, which has devastated African-American communities and undermined faith in the criminal justice system. African-Americans comprise the vast majority of those convicted of crack cocaine offenses, although whites and Hispanics form the majority of crack users. A 2006 ACLU report found no medical or legal justification for the unfair sentencing disparity ratio. Although Congress stated intent was to target high-level cocaine traffickers, the result has been just the opposite - a 2002 USSC report found that only 15 percent of federal cocaine traffickers can be classified as high-level, while over 70 percent of crack defendants have low-level involvement in drug activity, such as street level dealers, couriers, or lookouts. The ACLU report, "Cracks in the System: Twenty Years of the Unjust Federal Crack Cocaine Law," is available at: http://www.aclu.org/drugpolicy/sentencing/27181pub20061026.html