Supreme Court votes in favor of shorter sentences for crack cocaine

Since the 1980’s, sentences for crack cocaine have been harsher than sentences for powder cocaine, but today the Supreme Court voted to allow U.S. judges to impose shorter sentences for people convicted on crack cocaine charges.

Previously, someone arrested in possession of 5 grams of crack cocaine would get the same sentence as someone arrested with 500 grams of powder. Crack is a cheaper form of the drug and is predominantly used by blacks—more than 80 percent of people imprisoned on crack charges are African-American. Powder cocaine, on the other hand, is predominantly used by whites and Latinos. Many people in the law enforcement community, social activists and others have long thought the laws governing cocaine sentencing are racially and socioeconomically biased.

New guidelines for shorter sentences went into effect on Nov 1st. The Sentencing Commission, the authority that establishes the guidelines, will vote Tuesday about whether to apply the new rules retroactively, a ruling that could mean freedom for almost 20,000 people now imprisoned on crack cocaine charges.