U.S. House Bill Ends Crack Cocaine Sentencing Disparities
The bill now moves to the Senate for approval, where criminal justice advocates believe it will pass.
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In a bipartisan vote, the U.S. House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed the EQUAL Act, short for Eliminating a Quantifiably Unjust Application of the Law, a bill to permanently end the sentencing disparities between crack cocaine and powder, a policy that has led to the disproportionate incarceration of African Americans, reports Reuters. The Justice Department previously endorsed the bill and criminal justice advocates believe it has a chance of passing in the Senate.
U.S. Sentencing Commission data has shown that 87.5 percent of the people serving federal prison time for drug trafficking offenses primarily involving crack cocaine were Black. An investigation by Ashbury Park Press and USA Today found that Black users and dealers were arrested more frequently and handed stricter prison sentences than whites accused of drug crimes. If the EQUAL Act becomes law, it would permanently and entirely eliminate the crack-cocaine disparity, and it would retroactively apply to those who were previously sentenced, allowing people to take advantage of the new law.
