Working for justice, one issue at a time
Since FAMM announced historic reform victories that affect federal crack cocaine sentencing policy, we have received emails and calls from members across the country. Many people congratulated FAMM for helping achieve the guideline change. We appreciate all of your thoughtful and heartfelt messages and the work you did to convince the U.S. Sentencing Commission to make the change retroactive. This wouldn’t have happened without your support.
Some members have asked why FAMM is focusing so much on crack cocaine sentencing reforms. Others wonder if we are still working to eliminate mandatory sentences for other drugs or offenses that carry minimum penalties.
Rest assured, FAMM’s ultimate goal is to reform all mandatory minimum sentences, on the federal and state level, regardless of what drug is involved. We put a lot of hard work into the crack cocaine reduction for three reasons, which we feel contribute to FAMM’s goal of fair and proportionate sentences for all people.
1. The Sentencing Commission was committed to reducing sentences for crack cocaine and to exploring whether to make those sentence reductions retroactive. We knew FAMM could help with both those efforts and we would have been remiss had we not put a lot of energy and resources into them.
2. The reductions, however limited, meant real relief to defendants and prisoners. The new guideline amendment reduces crack cocaine sentences imposed after November 1 by 15 months for 70 percent of all crack cocaine defendants. The decision to make the reduction retroactive makes it possible for nearly 20,000 prisoners (almost ten percent of the federal prison population) to seek sentence reductions that average 27 months.
3. Enacting those reforms would help show Congress that mandatory minimums for crack and all drugs stand in the way of fair and proportionate sentencing. We believe they are getting the message.
In the coming year, FAMM will take advantage of the momentum created by the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s modest change to the crack sentencing guidelines and push for broader legislative reform in Congress and in the sentencing guidelines. We expect there to be continued activity around crack sentences, and FAMM will certainly be involved in those efforts, but our focus is and will always be on broad mandatory sentencing reform. We are Families Against Mandatory Minimums for a good reason – we will not stop working on federal sentencing reform and we will continue to work for sentencing reforms in Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey and other key states.
There is nothing better than knowing that FAMM’s work for fair and proportionate sentencing laws has a direct, positive impact on the lives of our members. That is why we started working for sentencing reform in 1991 and why we will keep working for it in 2007 and beyond—for all of our members.