Sentencing
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Problem Statement
Pursuant to the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, the U.S. Sentencing Commission, established guidelines for federal judges to use when sentencing people convicted of crimes. From these guidelines we notice a big difference in powder and crack cocaine sentencing protocol, a disparity. The disparity in sentencing for federal cocaine offenses has long been at the front lines of policy debate. This is an issue because there is a 100:1 differential in the amounts of powder and crack cocaine that trigger 5-and 10-year mandatory minimum sentences (Department of Justice, 2002). Basically, there appears to be great differences between sentences for powder and crack. Nationally, disparity in sentencing for federal cocaine offenses is at work in every case that the government handles. Only 14 states have laws that make some distinction between crack and powder cocaine in their sentencing schemes. These states are: Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Virginia (Norman-Eady, 2003-R-0700)...