Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday instructed federal prosecutors to end charging and sentencing disparities in cases involving the distribution of crack and powder cocaine, after decades of law enforcement policy disproportionately treating crack offenders more punitively (article available here).
Garland’s memo to the nation’s U.S. attorneys directs prosecutors to charge “pertinent statutory quantities that apply to powder cocaine” when pursuing crack cases and to “advocate for a sentence consistent with powder cocaine rather than crack cocaine.”
Garland’s move effectively seeks to eliminate the significant difference in the amount of powder cocaine relative to crack cocaine that is required to be in a suspect’s possession to trigger mandatory minimum federal sentences upon conviction.
Critics of the longtime policy have said it is a relic of Washington’s misguided War on Drugs era that targeted Black and Brown communities, resulted in overpopulated prisons and strained federal and local resources at the expense of more-effective strategies.
The move, long sought by civil rights advocates, comes as the Equal Act, a bill that would eliminate the disparity, has been stalled in the Senate amid objections from some Republicans after it passed in the House last year with bipartisan support.
Garland aides said the new guidelines, which will take effect within 30 days, are part of a broader set of changes the attorney general is making to the Justice Department’s charging policies.
The department under Garland continues to support the passage of the Equal Act, aides said; unlike a legislative change to federal policy, they noted, Garland’s memo would not retroactively apply to previous convictions.