Two Paths for the Same Drug

Almost 20 Years later and still trying to sort out the mess from the 1994 Crime Bill ( S.1607 - Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1993)

Two Paths for the Same Drug

If you were alive back in the mid 80s through the mid 90s you can probably remember how the crack cocaine epidemic was at the pinnacle of its existence. The Democrats had long been seen as the party that is soft on crime. With Bill Clinton as president the Democrats wanted to seize control of crime issues from Republicans, so the two parties began going back and forth trying to outdo one another to increase penalties for crime. The 1994 crime bill was a key part of the Democratic strategy to show that it can be tougher-on-crime than Republicans. Looking back this could’ve been one of the greatest criminal justice reform mistakes in the history of America. I am just touching on one area that led to many minimal drug possessions first time offenders carry felonies for the rest of her life.

A quick look back on the 1994 crime bill whose official name was S.1607 - Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1993. It was sponsored by then Senator Joe Biden now United States president. This bill had outlandish punishments for possession of crack cocaine versus the powder form. 500 grams of powder cocaine would get the same punishment as 5 grams of it in the crack cocaine rock form. Crack was cheaper to produce and was prominent in low-income areas, mostly urban poor areas, where the population was predominantly black. In 2012 those incarcerated for crack cocaine, 88% were black. It led to the overwhelming mass incarceration of low-level offenders, changed many demeanors to felonies that were minimal in how it affected society overall versus the fall out of the bill. How ironic that the bill was hurting the group of people that needed the most protection, African Americans in poor areas.

There was a blatant racial disparity among conviction of cocaine whether in the rock crack form or powder form between Hispanic, white and black. According to research from the Sentencing Project Approximately 2/3 of crack users are white or Hispanic, but most people convicted of possession in federal courts in 1994 were African American, according to the United States Sentencing Committee. Defendants convicted of crack possession in 1994 were 84.5% black, 10.3% white, and 5.2% Hispanic. Trafficking offenders were 4.1% white, 88.3% black, and 7.1% Hispanic. Powder cocaine offenders were more racially mixed. Defendants convicted of simple possession of cocaine powder were 58% white, 26.7% black, and 15% Hispanic. The powder trafficking offenders were 32% white, 27.4% black, and 39.3% Hispanic.Prison sentences were longer for blacks than whites, due to the combined difference in thesentencing laws and racial disparities.

--This infographic was created by Kimberly Angle with PowerPoint. The data retrieved from the Sentencing Project's Study "Crack Cocaine Sentencing Policy: Unjustified and Unreasonable"

Even through the racial disparities nobody was immune from the outlandish sentencing guidelines. I spoke with “Tim” (name changed for privacy) who’s girlfriend Lori (name has been changed for privacy), is a former felon in Ohio that took advantage of the new legislation’s guidelines last December to get an expungement. She caught the felony for a half a gram of crack cocaine back in 2002, right on the tail end of the crack epidemic but before any real criticism of the 1994 crime bill had been brought to forefront of criminal justice reform. For 20 years a highly educated, middle to upper class, Caucasian woman with a minimal criminal record prior to the felony and no criminal record since has carried this felony. Yes, you read that correctly a HALF OF A GRAM of crack cocaine, once you consider everything is put in with the cocaine to turn it into a rock form there would likely be less than an actual quarter of a gram of actual cocaine in the rock. “First of all, I’d say the stigma of having that felony hang over your head affects people in ways that non-felons probably don’t know. After all it’s on every job application that you fill out, asking are you a convicted felon? For most of us, it’s check the box no and move on. What about those people who must explain that away – even though it might be 10, 15, 20 years ago? It is an immense weight that they always carry. After the expungement I’d say there’s an improvement in confidence and a burden of shame that has been lifted. Of course, the mental and emotional state will improve when that burden is lifted, and doors open to opportunities that we’re not to be had previously” Tim stated it had been tough for him to watch her work so hard for everything but still have that roadblock she could not overcome until the expungement.

According to Amy McDonald, Allegany County Circuit Court Administrator, in Western Maryland “ I have not noticed an uptick as far as race here in Allegany County in recent years compared to almost 20 years ago when I first started here. There are as many white people as there are black people with criminal charges these days here. I sat in the courtroom recording the proceedings just about every day from March of 2001 through October of 2022 in my position as judicial assistant and court reporter until I became the Court Administrator.” There are factors that must be considered when looking at the bigger picture with racial disparity in some instances. McDonald went onto explain “Western Maryland is a much more rural area though with not as much of a dense African-American population as its urban counterparts like Baltimore in Maryland. That also must be taken into consideration when considering racial disparity that arose from the 1994 Crime Bill.”

Many people would have felonies that would follow them for the rest of their lives or a drug possession charge that now today wouldn’t even be given a citation for let alone a felony charge. Those that were caught with crack cocaine in such minimal amounts, with little to no criminal record, or those with a serious drug addiction who needed counseling and rehab to get their lives back on track were considered a criminal on a level of somebody that had committed a heinous violent crime as far as jail sentencing and type of charge. These people were left with a felony carried on their back for most of it if not all their adult lives. The law imposed tougher prison sentences at the federal level and encouraged states to do the same. It provided funds for states to build more prisons, aimed to fund 100,000 more cops, and backed grant programs that encouraged police officers to carry out more drug-related arrests, an escalation of the war on drugs.

Fast forward almost to 20 years later to Ohio December 15, 2022, the Ohio House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 288 which includes “changes that would make it easier to expunge criminal records” to “reduce the burden on previously incarcerated Ohioans and reduce the likelihood that they return to prison, would create an easier path to seal and expunge criminal records, which can hurt Ohioans’ chances of landing jobs and housing,” according to The Columbus Dispatch. This legislation was a follow up on HB-1 that was passed on April 12, 2021 that Modified intervention in lieu of conviction/sealing requirements, which was direct response to fallout from the 1994 crime bill. Senate Bill 288 would allow Ex-offenders to apply to have their records sealed after one year for most misdemeanors and fourth- or fifth-degree felonies and after three years for third-degree felonies. They could apply to have their records expunged or cleared from their criminal records after one year for misdemeanors and 10 years after felonies.

Ohio seemed to have the right idea with the expungement process. According to Tim, “The Hamilton County Ohio expungement timeline was fair, with a court date set up in just a few weeks. There didn’t seem to be a lot of paperwork involved. The judge was very pleasant, and the district attorney looked happy to be there and help. There was no shaming” making it a process that was obtainable for all those that met the criteria outlined in the legislation. It is clear and that there is within the judicial system felt this was a well needed piece of legislation to help people were getting their lives back. McDonald said, “The Judge will order a pre-sentence investigation (PSI) that gives a more thorough history of the Defendant. The PSI can take 60-90 days to be prepared and sentencing is set shortly after the court receives it. They typically all have guidelines attached to the PSI. This was not always the case but more so of recent years to curb issues with the disparity in sentencing guidelines. We take different factors into consideration on the local level.” It seems that many state and local municipalities have done what they can once they realize the fallout from the 1994 crime bill to help people get their lives back and be fairer with in sentencing.

It was critical that reform had to be made from negative issues that has been felt from this crime bill. In October 2022, the ,U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) put out an article titled “Expungement: Criminal Records as Reentry Barriers” highlighting an expungement “can help open the door to a second chance at life.” It showed two studies funded by the NIJ on reentry and recidivism to explain how these barriers are detrimental barriers to everyday life. There was an ongoing evaluation of expungement and impact on housing, employment and recidivism combined with a completed study on accuracy and long standing digital age criminal records. Essentially as technology evolved and more records that are immediately accessible to everybody has even strengthened the ability to deny low level felons basic human right it never should’ve been taken away from them to begin with for such minor offenses.

As almost two decades have passed since the 1994 Crime Bill was turned into legislation but as time passes it has proven how detrimental this piece of legislation was to so many Americans. Whether it was the actual offenders, or the offender’s loved ones, whole communities were destroyed by harsh punishment of low-level crimes, specifically the punishment for such minimal amounts of crack cocaine, that almost every American has felt some type of sting from the 1994 Crime Bill. Along with that comes the huge wave of mass incarceration, add into that the combination of racial disparity and vast difference in sentencing guidelines between powder and crack cocaine to get the result of the African American population were the largest group of casualties of this so-called criminal justice reform bill. The Democrats touted would protect them from the high crime with in their poor urban living areas, tearing families into single parent homes due to incarcerations of the other parent in which the cycle just keeps going. Luckily, we are at a point in time where the fall out is being addressed by many states on their level with new legislation to help the felony expungement process for those that are on the path to redemption, that are good people that just made a single bad decision or were addicted to a drug for some period and have put hard work in to turn their lives around. These pieces of legislation are way late, but better late than never. It’s a new hope for those who deserve a second chance.