FAMM urges Sentencing Commission to make crack cocaine guideline amendment retroactive

Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), the nation's leading sentencing reform organization with 13,000 members, today calls on the U.S. Sentencing Commission to make retroactive the crack cocaine guideline amendment that went into effect on November 1. FAMM has spearheaded the effort to make the crack cocaine guideline change apply to people already in prison, helping generate over 30,000 letters to the Sentencing Commission in support of retroactivity.

On November 13, FAMM members from across the country will attend the Commission's public hearing on retroactivity in Washington, D.C., bearing photographs of their incarcerated loved ones. FAMM president Julie Stewart will also testify at the hearing at 3:30 p.m. "Retroactivity of the crack guideline will not only affect the lives of nearly 20,000 individuals in prison but that of thousands more - mothers, fathers, daughters and sons - who anxiously wait for them to return home." said Stewart.  Click here to read Stewart's testimony to the Commission. 

Since 1995, the U.S. Sentencing Commission has repeatedly advised Congress that there is no rational, scientific basis for the 100-to-1 ratio between crack and powder cocaine sentences. The Commission has also identified the disparity as the "single most important" factor in longer sentences for African Americans compared to other racial groups. The criminal law committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, which represents the federal judges who would administer the application of the amendment to people in prison, has written the Commission in favor of retroactivity. Click here to read the letter.

"Nearly 80 percent of defendants convicted of federal crack cocaine offenses after Nov. 1 now face sentences 16 months shorter on average, thanks to sentencing guideline reforms approved by the U.S. Sentencing Commission," said Julie Stewart, president and founder of Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM). "The Sentencing Commission must now make the change retroactive. If a sentence is sufficient to serve the purposes of punishment for defendants in the future, it is sufficient for those who were sentenced under unjust rules in the past. Clearly, justice should not turn on the date an individual is sentenced."

Many FAMM members, including Lamont and Lawrence Garrison, would benefit if the changes are made retroactive. Arrested just months after graduating from Howard University, Lamont received 19 years and Lawrence received 15 years, respectively, after being accused of conspiring to distribute crack and powder cocaine. Both brothers would receive sentence reductions between three and four years.

However, neither the new guideline nor making it retroactive will impact the statutory 100-to-1 quantity disparity between crack and powder cocaine. "Congress must act to address the mandatory minimums that created the cocaine sentencing disparity in 1986 in order to ensure equal justice for all defendants," said Stewart.

Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) is the national voice for fair and proportionate sentencing laws. FAMM shines a light on the human face of sentencing, advocate for state and federal sentencing reform, and mobilize thousands of individuals and families whose lives are adversely affected by unjust sentences.

For more information, visit www.famm.org or email [email protected].