Today, the Federal sentencing guidelines require a 5 year minimum mandatory term of imprisonment for the mere possession of 5 grams of crack cocaine.  There is a 10 year minimum mandatory term of imprison, where the amount is 50 grams. The penalties for possession of crack cocaine is five times more serious than possession of powder cocaine.  For decades, jurists and scholars have complained that this imbalance (i.e. the so-called “5 to 1 ratio”) has a deleterious effect on the prosecution of young African American’s who live in low socio-economic neighborhoods where the use and distribution of crack cocaine is more prevalent than in the upscale white neighborhood were powdered cocaine is readily available.

On March 17, 2010, the United States Senate finally approved a bill that would reduce the penalties for crack cocaine sentencing.  The bill would require a 5 year minimum mandatory term in situations where the defendant was in possession of 28 grams of crack cocaine, as opposed to 5 grams and a 10 year minimum mandatory  term would be applicable only in cases where the defendant was in possession of 280 grams of crack cocaine, as opposed to 50 grams.

The United States Sentencing Commission has reported that “revising this one sentencing rule would do more to reduce the sentencing gap between blacks and whites than any other single policy change and would dramatically improve the fairness of the Federal Sentencing System.”