Major Easing of Drug Laws Proposed by Federal Judicial Panel

DRUG POLICY STUDIES April 1993

A panel of 13 federal judges has proposed substantial easing of federal drug sentences (Dennis Cauchon, "Judicial Panel Proposes Cap on Drug Sentences: Prison Costs, Crowding Cited in Recommendation," USA Today, 3/22/93, 2A).

The panel proposed that federal sentences for minor drug offenders be capped at 13 years without parole. Such offenders are now subject to maximum penalties of 30 years to life. In making the recommendations, the panel cited the huge growth in the federal prison population and huge increase in the average of federal drug sentences since 1987. In 1987, the average drug sentence was two years. By 1991, that average had grown to seven years. From 1987 to 1993 the federal prison population has grown from slightly over 44,000 to 83,000.

The panel's recommendations were among a number of proposals considered during U.S. Sentencing Commission hearings held on March 22. Other proposals under consideration included:

• Revising the law so that crack cocaine offenses are punished on the same weight basis as powder cocaine offenses. Today, crack offenses are punished much more seriously. Most (92.6 percent) crack offenders are black, while most (70.3 percent) powder cocaine offenders are white.
  
  
• Halting the practice of calculating sentences based on crimes for which defendants are acquitted. Now, a defendant acquitted of selling a kilogram of cocaine but convicted of selling a gram of cocaine may end up with a sentence based on the entire quantity of drugs involved, not just the amount in the charge of which he is convicted.
  
  
• Giving judges discretion to make reductions in sentence for cooperating with authorities. Now, only prosecutors can request reductions.
  
  
• Bringing LSD sentences in line with other drug sentences, so that the weight of the carrier is not counted as the weight of the drug. Because a dose of LSD is so light, counting the weight of paper or some other carrier can add decades to LSD sentences. As a result, many low-level offenders have received, long, no-parole federal sentences.