On Monday, Attorney General Eric Holder announced his “Smart on Crime” initiative, calling for major changes to drug sentencing, the release of elderly prisoners, and a decreased length of non-violent crime sentences. These measures will have a major impact on African-American defendants.

Blacks have been disproportionately sentenced at higher rates than Whites, “African Americans are incarcerated at a rate six times more than Whites.

Many of these inequities in justice have led to the U.S. prison system facing major overcrowding problems. According to Holder, despite the United States having only 5 percent of the world’s population, 25 percent of the prisoners in the world are in the United States.”

One key problem to prison overcrowding is the requirement for mandatory sentencing guidelines, which Holder is looking to change.
These mandatory sentences take all discretion from the judge and prosecutor in sentencing a person who pleads guilty or is found guilty of a drug crime.

For example, there was a mandatory 5-year sentence for 5 grams of crack and a mandatory 5-year sentence for 500 grams of powder cocaine. These type of guidelines, which were developed in the mid-1980’s, disproportionately sentenced Blacks, who were more likely to abuse crack, with no possibility of early parole or release.

Consequently, Holder has launched a review of policy in an effort to create fairness in the justice system.

This will allow courts more discretion when sentencing for low level, non-violent offenders.