Fred Thompson seems to think forgiveness is one of his strong suits. The Republican presidential aspirant recently brushed off news that one of his campaign co-chairmen, Phil Martin, posted a guilty plea in 1979 for selling 11 pounds of marijuana and a no-contest plea in 1983 for cocaine trafficking and conspiracy. "You are talking about something that happened in his life, I guess, 25 years ago... when he was in his 20s," Thompson said.
Not to be outdone, Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor running for the Republican presidential nomination, has excused the illegal dealings of Bernard Kerik, Giuliani's former police commissioner whose nomination to become secretary of the Department of Homeland Security he supported. "Sure, there were issues," Giuliani told the Associated Press, "but if I have the same degree of success and failure as president of the United States, this country will be in great shape."
Even before them, President George Bush commuted the 30-month prison sentence of Lewis "Scooter" Libby who had been convicted of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators in the probe of the leak of the name of a CIA operative. In another case of compassion and forgiveness of the powerful, the President claimed that Libby's sentence was "excessive," and that the suffering of the former aid to Vice President Cheney "long-lasting."
Thompson, Giuliani, and Bush have proven that they're willing to forgive millionaires and the powerful for big mistakes. Libby is one of the few exception to Bush's stinginess with forgiveness of prisons -- on pace to issue the fewest pardons since George Washington. If either Thompson or Giuliani become president, I just hope they'll extend the same compassion to wayward kids in my community who have run-ins with the law that they've shown to their friends.
The criminal justice system certainly hasn't been forgiving over the past 20 years. In response to the onslaught of cocaine abuse in the 1980s, the nation crafted a drug policy totally lacking in compassion, and worse, that was totally unfair to the weakest, and most disadvantaged, in society.
The sudden, frightening epidemic of a new street drug -- crack cocaine -- and the drug induced death of basketball star Len Bias in 1986 -- impelled besieged lawmakers to enact stiff punishments for crack cocaine offenses, including long mandatory minimum jail sentences. Instead of reducing drug addiction and crime, those laws -- however well-intentioned, swelled prison populations, created a sentencing divide that victimized young Black men, left a generation of children fatherless, and drove up the costs of a justice system focused more on harsh punishment than rehabilitation.
The resulting frustration is not limited to the heartbroken mothers and shattered communities. Law enforcement and even judges are chafing under the inequity in the law that slaps the same 5-year sentence for possessing 5 grams of crack cocaine as is mandated for possessing 500 grams of powder cocaine -- a 100-1 disparity.
The inequality is feeding the population of 2.2 million prisoners, the world's largest. Blacks, who are most likely to be caught up in drug sweeps, comprise only 15 percent of users but account for over 40 percent of the 500,000 imprisoned drug offenders. Caught in a cycle of poverty, crime and recidivism, it's no wonder that more than half of the African American male high school drop-outs have spent time in jail. Overall, Black communities have more kids behind bars than they do in college.
The criminal justice system is only inching toward reform. Last week, the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which is mandated by Congress to set sentencing guidelines for judges, reduced the recommended penalties for crack cocaine convictions. Under the ruling, sentences meted out to new crack cocaine offenders will be 15 months shorter than the current average of 120 months.
We urge that body to make its amendment retroactive so that past offenders may benefit. Retroactivity has the potential to shorten the sentences of 19,500 low-level offenders, unburdening our prisons of 2,520 of them in the first year and reuniting families left in shambles.
Next year, the Supreme Court will decide whether the Sentencing Commission's guidelines have unduly hamstrung judges. We urge the high Court to restore judicial discretion by granting federal judges greater flexibility in deviating from those guidelines. I am heartened by the Sentencing Commission's actions thus far and look forward to the Court's decision, but it's far from enough.
However the Sentencing Commission and the Court decide, it is Congress −- and Congress alone −- that has the unique authority (and responsibility) to set crack penalties on par with powder penalties. I have proposed the Crack-Cocaine Equitable Sentencing Act to do just that, since there is no significant difference between crack and powder cocaine, experts agree −- except that 90 percent of those sentenced under severe crack cocaine penalties are Black or Hispanic.
The policy of targeting crack cocaine users and sellers has diverted law enforcement's focus away from incarcerating drug kingpins who supply them. No one is condoning drug use or crime of any kind, at any level. But it seems to me, there could be a more judicious allocation of resources at both ends of the drug pipeline: Choke off the flow of drugs before they reach small-time thugs on our streets and rehabilitate more of those who slip through the cracks. Every Frank Lucas produces ten thousand crackheads and dealers, and for them, the stigma of a prison sentence is a ticket to a career of crime.
To me, the growing incidents of high school dropouts, drugs, and crime are national security issues, threatening our ability to compete in the global economy. We cannot afford to cede ground to countries like India and China, by allowing any of our youngsters to go astray while our standing in the world dwindles. The cost in human and economic capital eventually will be too much for our country to bear. America has to invest in these kids -− not throw the book at them. The smartest approach employs good sense; the most moral approach employs compassion. The very best approach employs both.
President Bush and presidential wannabes Thompson and Giuliani seem to find it so easy to find compassion when one of their own breaks the law. But they are silent when the poor and powerless are warehoused in our jails because of an unjust criminal justice system.