WASHINGTON — The federal government said this week that it has received hundreds of court orders reducing the prison sentences of crack-cocaine offenders in the two days since new sentencing guidelines took effect.
A spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons could not say how many prisoners have already been released under the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s new guidelines. Nationwide, 831 inmates have had their sentences modified by federal judges, but officials with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons say that doesn’t mean those prisoners have been released.
Some activists say the guidelines bring a much-delayed sense of equity, but the Bush administration asserts that they will result in the release of violent criminals.
More than 3,000 crack offenders are eligible for release within the year, according to an analysis by the Sentencing Commission, which modified a 100-to-1 ratio disparity between sentences meted for crack- and powder-cocaine possession, saying it was unfair because while the drugs are virtually the same, crack-cocaine sentences are often five times as long.
The Bush administration opposed the Sentencing Commission’s decision to make the new guidelines retroactive for inmates currently serving sentences for crack-cocaine crimes. Attorney General Michael Mukasey said crack offenders would clog the courts with petitions requesting release and that “violent criminals” would eventually be returned to the streets.
Mukasey and other Justice Department officials asked Congress to block the commission’s decision in several meetings of the House and Senate judiciary panels, but lawmakers declined to act.
As early as January, inmates started filing motions for sentence modifications. Judges reviewed the motions and notified federal prosecutors and public defenders that their petitions were being considered.
In the Eastern District of Virginia, which has the largest number of crack-cocaine convictions and nearly 2,000 inmates who are eligible for release within the next year, one federal public defender, Mi chael Nachmanoff, said he submitted petitions for the release of 16 clients, one of whom was freed as of this week.
In congressional testimony and in speeches, Mukasey said 80 percent have prior criminal records and are likely to commit another crime.
But a Sentencing Commission analysis said most of the convicts who were eligible for immediate release were small- time offenders who are nonviolent.
In Colorado, 115 people are eligible for a sentence reduction, according to data from the Sentencing Commission, and 24 of those are eligible for release within the year.
So far, about 30 prisoners who were convicted in Colorado have filed motions to have their sentences reduced under the new guidelines. None has appeared before a judge yet, and none has been released from federal custody so far, according to the U.S. Probation Office.
Denver Post staff writer Felisa Cardona contributed to this report.
