"Health & Medical News"

The U.S. Sentencing Commission has ruled that recent changes to the federal sentencing guidelines for crack-cocaine offenses will be applied retroactively, meaning that up to 20,000 current prisoners may be able to apply for early release, USA Today reported Dec. 12.

The commission previously voted to reduce the disparity between crack-cocaine penalties and the penalties for offenses involving the powdered version of the drug; that change went into effect Nov. 1. In its latest action, the panel defied the Bush administration and voted unanimously to apply the lower crack sentences to offenders currently serving time.

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The group Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) said that a recent decision to ease federal penalties for crack cocaine offenses should be retroactively applied to offenders already in prison, the Austin American-Statesman reported Nov. 3.

Congress went along with the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s recommendation that crack penalties should be reduced by about 10 percent to bring them into closer alignment with penalties for powder-cocaine offenses. But FAMM President Julie Stewart said that the policy shift doesn’t go far enough because it was not retroactively applied.

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