President Joe Biden's Justice Department is backing legislation that would end the sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine that was initially implemented through the Anti-Drug abuse Act of 1986 during the Reagan administration.
A Tuesday hearing saw lawmakers hear from experts about the EQUAL Act, short for Eliminating a Quantifiably Unjust Application of the Law, which the Justice Department backed.
In a written testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, the department criticized the "unwarranted racial disparities" that resulted from the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine drug offenses that is still present today, alleging that the policy was "based on misinformation about the pharmacology of cocaine and its effects."
"We believe it is long past time to end the disparity in sentencing policy between federal offenses involving crack cocaine and those involving powder cocaine," the testimony read, according to Reuters.
It also pointed out that, as of March 2021, U.S. Sentencing Commission data shows that nearly 90 percent of people incarcerated for drug trafficking crimes that primarily involved crack cocaine were black.
The mass incarceration of black people for crimes surrounding crack cocaine is a result of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which created a 100-to-1 disparity in sentencing related to cocaine offenses. Possession of one gram of crack carried the same sentence as 100 grams of powder cocaine.
The difference in sentencing was due to the myth that crack cocaine was more harmful than powder cocaine despite no pharmacological differences between the two.
The racial discrepancy comes from the price of each drug as the more affordable crack cocaine was associated with poorer black people while powder cocaine was primarily purchased by wealthier white individuals due to its higher cost.
Black people using crack were also incarcerated at a much higher rate than white people despite data showing that the majority of the people using the drug were white.
The 100-to-1 ratio implemented as part of the War on Drugs was reduced to 18-to-1 in 2010 during the Obama administration under the Fair Sentencing Act.
In 2018 under former President Donald Trump, the First Step Act was passed by Congress, which looked to help lower-level crack cocaine offenders apply for reductions to their sentencing as a result of the penalty for their crimes being lessened.
However, the Supreme Court ruled last week that low-level crack cocaine offenders could not retroactively apply for reduced sentences.
The Justice Department encouraged Congress to ensure that the EQUAL Act be applied retroactively, saying in the testimony: "We support retroactivity because it is the right thing to do."
The department's support of the act met the ire of tough-on-crime GOP lawmakers who have favored penitentiary time over rehabilitation for users of illegal substances.
Crack penalties are harsher than powder cocaine penalties.
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) June 22, 2021
Let's fix this by increasing the penalty for selling powder cocaine.
Not by letting drug traffickers out of prison.
Critics of the War on Drugs, however, were enthusiastic about the possibility that the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine could be lessened and were opposed to harsher sentences for any cocaine-related crimes.
Great idea! After all, those harsh penalties worked so well with crack that no one ever smoked it after that!
— Kat Timpf (@KatTimpf) June 22, 2021
Or maybe this: The expensive failure that is the War on Drugs has been about as successful as lighting money on fire with far more added harm and injustice. https://t.co/UL39yQ5Bo8
Biden crafted the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 during his time as a senator and intensified incarceration rates for low-level drug crimes in his 1994 crime bill.