Over one hundred local, state and national organizations and legal experts submit letters of support
SACRAMENTO, CA—(ENEWSPF)—April 29, 2014. The California Fair Sentencing Act (SB 1010) authored by Senator Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles), passed its first hurdle in the Senate Committee on Public Safety by a 4-2 vote today. Senator Mitchell’s bill will correct the groundless disparity in sentencing, probation and asset forfeiture guidelines for possession of crack cocaine for sale versus the same crime involving powder cocaine that has resulted in a pattern of racial discrimination in sentencing and incarceration in California. SB 1010 now moves on to the Appropriations Committee.
Garnering over 100 letters of support, the California Fair Sentencing Act boasts support from national civil rights groups like the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Advancement Project, human rights advocates like Human Rights Watch and The Children’s Defense Fund, over a dozen Latino and immigrant rights groups such as MALDEF and CHIRLA, faith based collaboratives like Los Angeles Metropolitan Churches and PICO California, leading drug treatment providers like Tarzana Treatment Centers and California Society of Addiction Medicine, constitutional attorneys including Dean of UC Irvine School of Law Erwin Chemerinsky and Warren Institute UC Berkeley School of Law Senior Fellow Barry Krisberg, and many other organizations and individuals who believe that the time has come for equal justice under the law (full list is below).
“Same crime, same punishment is a basic principle of law in our democratic society,” said Senator Mitchell, Chair of the Black Caucus and member of the Senate Public Safety Committee. “Yet more Black and Brown people serve longer sentences for trying to sell cocaine because the law unfairly punishes cheap drug traffic more severely than the white-collar version. Well, fair needs to be fair.”
Crack and powder cocaine are two forms of the same drug. Scientific reports, including a major study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, demonstrate that they have nearly identical effects on the human body. Crack cocaine is a product derived when cocaine powder is processed with an alkali, typically common baking soda. Gram for gram, there is less active drug in crack cocaine than in powder cocaine.
“Our current law is discriminatory,” said Lynne Lyman of the Drug Policy Alliance. “As one of only 12 states left in the country that maintains this unjust disparity in cocaine sentencing, I am happy to see this bill move forward.”
According to intake data from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, people of color account for over 98% of persons sent to California prisons for possession of crack cocaine for sale. From 2005 to 2010, Blacks accounted for 77.4% of state prison commitments for crack possession for sale, Latinos accounted for 18.1%. Whites accounted for less than 2 percent of all those sent to California prisons in that five year period. Blacks make up 6.6% of the population in California; Latinos 38.2%, and whites 39.4%.
The Senate Public Safety Committee staff analysis noted that African Americans are imprisoned for possession of cocaine base for sale at a rate 43.25 times that for whites. Moreover, it noted that despite the fact that white adolescents use drugs at much higher rates than minority adolescents, the US Department of Justice found that juvenile drug arrests disproportionately involve minorities.
In a show of bipartisanship in 2010, Republicans and Democrats in the US Congress passed legislation to address the unfair crack/cocaine sentencing disparity in federal law by reducing the disparity from 100-to-1 down to 18-to-1. And on January 30, 2014, the US Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-5 in favor of the Smarter Sentencing Act to reduce or eliminate mandatory minimums for specified drug offenses, and to allow courts to reduce sentences for persons convicted of crack cocaine offenses committed before the August 2010 sentencing reform. Republican coauthors include Senators Mike Lee (UT), Rand Paul (KY) and Ted Cruz (TX).
“For far too many years, we have had to watch harsh penalties applied disproportionately to Black and Brown urban communities,” said Susan Burton of A New Way of Life, who spent many years in prison herself for crack cocaine offenses. “This bill is a beginning to fairer sentencing policies in California.”
Mitchell’s bill is cosponsored by a dozen civil rights and criminal justice reform organizations across the state. Cosponsors include the Drug Policy Alliance, ACLU of California, A New Way of Life, California State Conference of the NAACP, Californians for Safety and Justice, California Public Defenders Association, California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, Ella Baker Center, Friends Committee on Legislation, National Council for La Raza, and the William C. Velasquez Institute.
The California Fair Sentencing Act – SB 1010 (Senator Holly Mitchell) – Supporters List
A New PATH
A New Way of Life (sponsor)
Addiction Research and Treatment
Advancement Project
Alpha Project
American Civil Liberties Union (sponsor)
Amity Foundation
Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC)
Asian American Drug Abuse Program (AADAP)
Asian Law Caucus
California Attorneys for Criminal Justice (sponsor)
California Civil Rights Coalition
California Coalition for Women Prisoners
California Drug Counseling, Inc.
California Public Defenders Assoc. (sponsor)
California Society of Addiction Medicine
California State Conference–NAACP (sponsor)
Californians for Safety & Justice (sponsor)
Californians United for a Responsible Budget
Center for Health Justice
Center for Living and Learning
Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice
Center on Policy Initiatives
Children’s Defense Fund, California
CHIRLA
Community Coalition
Community Works West
Courage Campaign
Drug Policy Alliance (sponsor)
Ella Baker Center (sponsor)
Employee Rights Center
FACTS Education Fund
Fair Chance Project
Friends Committee on Legislation (sponsor)
healthRIGHT360
Hermandad Mexicana
Holman United Methodist Church
Homeboy Industries
Homeless Healthcare Los Angeles
Homies Unidos
Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission
Human Rights Watch
Islamic Shura Council of Southern California
Justice Not Jails
Justice Policy Institute
L.A. Centers for Alcohol and Drug Abuse
L.A. Community Action Network
L.A. Regional Reentry Partnership (LARRP)
Latino Voters League
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Washington DC
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, S.F.
League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office
Los Angeles Metropolitan Churches
MALDEF
Mexican American Political Association
National Association of Social Workers, Women’s Council, CA Chapter
National Council for La Raza (sponsor)
National Employment Law Project (NELP)
National Latino Evangelical Coalition
PICO California
Pillars of the Community
Presente.org
Progressive Christians Uniting
Project Inform
Prototypes
Rubicon Programs
San Diego Black Health Associates, Inc.
San Diego Organizing Project
San Fernando Recovery Center
SHIELDS for Families
Strawberry Creek Religious Society of Friends
Tarzana Treatment Centers
Taxpayers for Improving Public Safety
The Latina/Latino Roundtable
The Sentencing Project
UC Hastings Law Students for Sensible Drug Policy
University United Methodist Church
William C. Velázquez Institute (sponsor)
Individuals:
Alan E. Brownstein, Professor of Law & Boochever and Bird Chair for the Study and Teaching of Freedom and Equality, UC Davis School of Law
Alex Kreit, Associate Professor of Law and Director, Center for Law & Social Justice, Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Andrea Roth, Assistant Professor, UC Berkeley School of Law
Barry Krisberg, PhD, Senior Fellow, Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy, UC Berkeley School of Law
Carol Ruth Silver, Freedom Riders Foundation
Daria Roithmayr, Professor of Law and Critical Race Theory, USC Gould School of Law
Donald Dripps, Warren Distinguished Professor, University of San Diego School of Law
Elisabeth Semel, Clinical Professor of Law, UC Berkeley School of Law
Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the School of Law, UC Irvine School of Law
Gary Williams, Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. Professor of Law in Civil Rights, Loyola Law School
Gerald Uelmen, Professor of Law and Director, Edwin A. Heafey Jr. Center for Trial and Appellate Advocacy, Santa Clara University School of Law
Hadar Aviram, Professor of Law and Co-Chair of Hastings Institute for Criminal Justice, UC Hastings College of the Law
James F. Stiven, U.S. Magistrate Judge (So. Dist. CA) (Ret.)
Jeffrey Selbin, Clinical Professor of Law, UC Berkeley School of Law
Jonathan Simon, Adrian A. Kragen Professor of Law & Faculty Director, Center for the Study of Law & Society, UC Berkeley School of Law
Keramet A. Reiter, JD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Criminology, Law & Society, UC Irvine School of Law
Kevin Cole, Professor of Law, Former Dean of the School of Law, University of San Diego School of Law
Peter Zschiesche, Trustee, San Diego Community College District
Regine Neptune
Sam Torres, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, California State University, Long Beach, Department of Criminal Justice
Teresa Dalton, JD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Criminology, Law & Society, UC Irvine School of Law
Udoka Nwanna, Civil Litigator and Professor, Western State College of Law
W. David Ball, Associate Professor, Santa Clara University School of Law
Source: www.drugpolicy.org
