High court considers sentencing disparity

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court is to consider a drug sentencing disparity that sends more black people to prison than white.

Sentencing guidelines, written more than 20 years ago, specify a much larger penalty for crack cocaine than for powder cocaine, The Christian Science Monitor reported Tuesday.

For example, possessing 5 grams of crack means a five-year mandatory sentence, while it would take 100 times more -- 500 grams -- to trigger a five-year mandatory sentence for possession of powder cocaine.

"African-Americans are incarcerated for federal crack-related offenses in vastly higher numbers and proportions than whites," lawyer Ian Gershengorn wrote the court on behalf of the NAACP.

Studies show of those sentenced for crack-cocaine trafficking, 88 percent are black and 4 percent white, yet more than half of all crack users are white, Gershengorn said, quoting researchers who say police target smalltime dealers in black neighborhoods because the cases are easy to prosecute.