Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the bipartisan United States Sentencing Commission was created by Congress to establish guidelines that are used by Federal judges when they sentence criminal defendants. Tomorrow, the Sentencing Commission will take an important vote. The Commission is considering whether to apply retroactively the sentencing guideline amendment implementing the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010. As the lead sponsor of the Fair Sentencing Act, I urge the Commission to apply this amendment retroactively. Just last year, Democrats and Republicans joined together to pass the Fair Sentencing Act, bipartisan legislation that reduced the disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentencing. For more than 20 years, we had a 100-to-1 crack-powder sentencing disparity. It took 100 times more powder cocaine than crack cocaine to trigger the same harsh mandatory minimum sentences. Simply possessing 5 grams of crack carried the same penalty as selling 500 grams of powder. This disparity was one of the most significant causes of unequal incarceration rates between African Americans and Caucasians. The following statistic is chilling: In this country, African Americans are incarcerated at approximately six times the rate of Caucasians. The Fair Sentencing Act dramatically reduced the 100-to-1 disparity. Last November, the Sentencing Commission issued amended sentencing guidelines that put into effect the Fair Sentencing Act's reduced crack sentences.…”