Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer is backing legislation to reduce jail time for drug traffickers by nearly a third, including thousands of felons already serving time in federal prison.
Mr. Schumer, New York Democrat, has joined the bipartisan co-sponsors of the EQUAL Act that advocates say fixes the disparity between federal sentencing guidelines for trafficking crack cocaine and powder cocaine.
Supporters say it is a long-overdue application of equal justice. Critics warn that it’s a soft-on-crime move at the worst possible time when violent crime is skyrocketing across the country.
If enacted, the legislation would not only level the federal sentences for future drug trafficking crimes but would retroactively slash prison time for felons already behind bars. The U.S. Sentencing Commission, which analyzed the impact of the bill, estimates such a change would affect 7,787 drug traffickers currently incarcerated by the federal government.
Of that figure, 7,644 drug traffickers — nearly 5% of the federal prison population — would receive a reduction in their sentence, according to the commission. In most cases, drug traffickers would see their overall prison sentences slashed by more than a third.
“The current average sentence for these offenders is 173 months,” the commission wrote in its analysis of the bill. “The estimated new sentence for these offenders would be 100 months.”
The bill, which passed the House last year, is likely to get a vote in the Senate before the midterms given the support of Mr. Schumer and GOP lawmakers. At the moment, nine Republicans have signed on to the bill, including Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
The GOP support means the legislation is one vote away from being able to overcome a filibuster, provided all 50 Senate Democrats unite behind the effort.
Advocates for the bill say that it is about rectifying “unjust drug laws” that have “disproportionately” impacted communities of color.
“For over three decades, unjust, baseless and unscientific sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine have contributed to the explosion of mass incarceration in the United States and disproportionately impacted poor people, Black and Brown people, and people fighting mental illness,” said Sen. Cory A. Booker, New Jersey Democrat.
Policing and public safety experts say the rhetoric being used by advocates is doing a disservice to the millions of Americans who are concerned about spiking crime rates.
“This kind of insanely overinflated rhetoric is what characterizes federal sentencing reform,” said Charles Fain Lehman, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute. “Proponents seem to imply that we’re finally going to end mass incarceration by cutting an average of six years off of an average 14-year federal drug trafficking sentence.”
Communities across the country, from the inner city to the suburbs, are facing a wave of violent crime. Local police departments, especially in major metropolitan regions, have been hamstrung in their efforts to combat the spike by lenient criminal justice policies and left-wing prosecutors.
Last year, nine U.S. cities reported record homicide rates. In New York City alone, homicides crept upward of 500 for the first time in a decade. In Chicago, meanwhile, 797 people were killed, many of them innocent civilians caught in the crosshairs of warring gangs.
“We are witnessing a breakdown of society,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican. “There are many Americans who no longer feel safe today. Parents are scared to walk down streets that used to be free from crime.”
Soaring crime has also made America’s communities more dangerous for police officers. Last year, according to the FBI, 73 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty. Not including the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, that is the most law enforcement officers killed since 1995.
Polling shows that voters increasingly cite combating the surge in crime as a top priority. One recent Fox Business survey from December found that almost 8 in 10 registered voters (77%) are “extremely” or “very” concerned about the spike.
“It’s no coincidence that this violence came as localities and states pushed to defund the police and reduce the punishments for criminals,” Mr. Cotton said. “Career criminals are committing violent crimes and are going free, under the guise of a supposedly more ‘equitable’ justice system.”
• Haris Alic can be reached at halic@washingtontimes.com.
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