James Norton: “Two thousand five hundred ex-felons return to the District of Columbia every year. They are a microcosm of who is coming…”

“Two thousand five hundred ex-felons return to the District of Columbia every year. They are a microcosm of who is coming home to every community in this country. There is a special benefit and a special burden that has to be spoken of on this bill. Twelve percent of our population is African American; 40 percent of those in Federal prison are African Americans. Most of these are nonviolent drug offenders. It is the sentencing guidelines, the mandatory minimums that have done this. All of us here have played a major role in destroying the African American family and their children, because these have been drug peddlers, not kingpins. The disparities have been recently relaxed. Justices, beginning with Justice Rehnquist, have spoken to the injustice. These inmates are now coming home. They have been in Federal prisons. Let's not make it any worse than it was in condemning them disproportionately under the crack cocaine guidelines. We owe it to their communities to help them return and become good citizens. That is all this bill aims to do.”