"Health & Medical News"

From:
Treatment Research Institute
600 Public Ledger Building, 150 S. Independence Mall West
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Tel: (215) 399-0980
http://www.tresearch.org

Paying substance abuse treatment providers for results, not services, may lead to improved quality of care, according to the first published study of a novel performance-based contracting system implemented by the State of Delaware in 2002.

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U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey is asking Congress to reverse a decision by the U.S. Sentencing Commission to apply reduced sentences for crack-cocaine offenses retroactively, Reuters reported Feb. 6.

The commission recently voted unanimously to reduce the crack penalties to bring them more into line with those for powdered-cocaine offenses and to apply the reduced penalties to individuals already in prison. The policy takes effect next month.

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Raising the specter of convicted crack-cocaine offenders being released from prison due to sentencing reform, Bush administration Attorney General Michael Mukasey asked Congress to appropriate $200 million to help cities fight violent crime, the Washington Post reported Jan. 25.

In an address before the U.S. Conference of Mayors — which last year unanimously adopted a resolution calling the War on Drugs a failure — Mukasey cited the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s decision to retroactively equalize penalties for crack and powdered cocaine in warning that “a sudden influx of criminals from federal prison into your communities could lead to a surge in new victims as a tragic, but predictable, result.”

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The U.S. Sentencing Commission has issued new guidelines that reduce average sentences for crack-cocaine offenses and bring penalties more in line with those meted out to offenders caught selling or possessing powdered cocaine, the New York Times reported Nov. 2.

After years of debate over the sentencing disparity*, the sentencing panel quietly reduced the average crack sentence from 10 years, 1 month to 8 years, 10 months. Congress let a mandatory 180-day review period pass without challenging the commission’s recommendation.

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The U.S. Supreme Court this week heard arguments on whether judges should have more say in sentencing offenders, and seemed to be leaning toward broadening judicial discretion, the Los Angeles Times reported Oct. 3.

Critics say mandatory sentencing guidelines rob jurists of the power to alter sentencing based on the facts of individual cases, often result in overly harsh punishment, and have helped fill prisons with low-level drug offenders. But the U.S. Justice Department wants the mandatory minimums maintained, with Deputy Solicitor General Michael R. Dreeben arguing that the alternative would be widely varying sentences for identical crimes.

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