Advocates for criminal justice reform are pushing Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to advance a bill that would eliminate the longstanding sentencing disparities in place for people found guilty of possessing crack cocaine versus powder cocaine.
The bill, known as the Eliminating a Quantifiably Unjust Application of the Law, or EQUAL Act, would end the practice of slapping people convicted of crack possession with longer prison stays compared with those sentenced for possessing a comparable amount of powder cocaine. For decades, the sentencing disparities have disproportionately impacted people of color.
Last summer, Schumer made the legislation a priority, but the bill didn’t get a Senate floor vote in last year’s congressional session. Now, advocates are requesting he push for the bill once more, with more than 30 groups demanding he advance it before the end of this summer’s session.
“While we appreciate Sen. Schumer’s support for the EQUAL Act, the reality is that Democrats have now controlled the Senate Judiciary [Committee] for three years without advancing any meaningful criminal justice reform,” said Janos Marton, vice president of political strategy for Dream.org. “Now is the time to do that.”
Marton’s group is one of 35 entities that recently signed onto a letter addressed to Schumer asking he move the bill forward — a request that comes amid a surge in overdose deaths tied to fentanyl use and efforts to enact tougher penalties for possession of that narcotic.
Before the bill can get a Senate floor vote, it must be voted out of the body’s Judiciary Committee, where it now resides. The heads of that committee, Sen. Dick Durbin, its chairman, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, its ranking Republican member, did not immediately respond to calls Tuesday.
“Sen. Schumer continues to champion the EQUAL Act and is working with many supporters to keep its momentum going,” Schumer’s spokesman Angelo Roefaro said.
If enacted into law, the new provision would not only apply to cocaine possession cases moving forward, but would automatically apply to already tried cases that resulted in inordinate prison sentences — opening the door to the possibility of an early release for many who remain in custody.
In the 1980s, federal lawmakers introduced extremely strict sentencing guidelines around crack cocaine, which is a cheaper form of the drug and was more commonly used among Black people during the height of the “War on Drugs.” Possession of the same amount of powder cocaine — far more common among whites — carries far less risk of a long prison stretch.
The disparity in who is being busted for what form of cocaine has largely remained in place
In 2020, 77% of crack cocaine trafficking offenders were Black, while 6% were white, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. And crack users were more likely to report a lifetime arrest or multiple recent arrests than powder cocaine users, according to a 2015 report by NYU researchers.
Inimai Chettiar, federal director of Justice Action Network, which also signed on to the letter, said that aside from reaching out to Schumer, she and the other advocates are also calling on Durbin and others in the Senate to act.
“This bill needs to move ASAP. Given that Sen. Schumer is the majority leader, he also has the power to put pressure on the Judiciary Committee to have them move this bill,” she said. “It’s been three years that we’ve been waiting.”
Under the federal drug law as it currently stands, 28 grams of crack cocaine and 500 grams of powder cocaine trigger the same sentencing guidelines.
Over the years the federal government successfully rolled back some of the guidelines’ disparities, but advocates have said it hasn’t gone far enough.
And last December, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland issued new guidance that essentially eliminates the disparities. Advocates have pointed out, though, that Garland’s move could easily be undone by his successor and that the policy doesn’t extend back to people who’ve already been sentenced to prison, which means they still cannot have their sentences reduced retroactively.
More recently, in 2021, the House of Representatives voted to approve the EQUAL Act with a vote of 361 to 66. But the bill hasn’t fared as well in the Senate.
Last summer, Schumer called for an end to the sentencing disparities, but the bill didn’t get a floor vote in that summer’s session.
In their letter to Schumer, dated this July 9, groups that include the NAACP’s New York State Conference, the Legal Aid Society and Dream.org asked that he “demonstrate the EQUAL Act’s importance once again by asking the Judiciary Committee to advance the bill and publicly prioritize it.”
“Without your leadership, this landmark legislation will fall by the wayside — an unacceptable outcome for the thousands of individuals and families awaiting relief,” the groups wrote.
Deborah Lee, attorney-in-charge of the immigration law unit at the Legal Aid Society, said the issue has also proved to be a huge problem in immigrant communities.
“Our clients have long suffered the harmful and racially discriminatory and disparate sentencing laws between crack and powder cocaine. For immigrants, this sentencing scheme can result in harsh and unnecessary deportation and detention consequences,” she said. “The EQUAL Act would eliminate this disparity, which continues to persist today, and provide redress to those serving excessively long sentences due to this disparity.”
