The Hard and Soft Realities of the Criminal Justice System

The Hard and Soft Realities of the Criminal Justice System

Alejandra Guzman

     
In regards to race and crime, there exist both hard and soft realities within the criminal justice system. Within society and the criminal justice system, there are different sentences for crack cocaine (hard) and powder cocaine (soft). Crack cocaine is just powder cocaine cooked up with baking soda. “About 90 percent of federal crack cocaine defendants are black” (Cole, 211). With that being said, it is evident why sentencing for crack cocaine is almost double the sentencing for powder cocaine. “Under the federal sentencing guidelines, a small-time crack ‘retailer’ caught selling 5 grams of crack receives the same prison sentence as a large scale powder cocaine dealer convicted of distributing 500 grams of powder cocaine (Cole, 211). Over 65 of crack users are white but only 4.7 percent are imprisoned for crack cocaine according to Cole.

“Though black cocaine offenders in the federal system serve sentences on average five years longer than white cocaine offenders, the courts see no constitutional problem” (Cole, 212). In 2010, Obama signed a law narrowing the cocaine sentencing disparities. In Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, he mentioned the hard and soft realities of cocaine. “He said that the old law disproportionately affected young African-American and Hispanic drug user… he said the new legislation would ‘help right a longstanding wrong’ and was ‘the right thing to do’” (Baker, 1). The new law reduces the 100-to-1 disparity to 18-to-1. “A crack defendant would have to have 28 grams to trigger the five-year mandatory minimum sentence, or roughly the amount that authorities presume would indicate a dealer rather than a casual user” (Baker, 1). Although there is evident relationship between race and crime when it comes to cocaine, many still see nothing wrong with it. Crack cocaine is more harmful due to the fact that it is potent, but cocaine is cocaine. Whether baking soda is added or not, it started off as powder cocaine and should not be drastically different in regards to sentencing.

The cocaine disparities relates to living in a color blindness world. Color blindness is the idea that we no longer live in a state of racism and segregation. A state where everyone is offered an equal opportunity and everyone is treated equally no matter what race you are. ‘Color blindness hides white privilege behind a mask of assumed meritocracy while rendering invisible the institutional arrangements that perpetuate racial inequality’ (Gallagher, 95). According to the theory of color blindness, blacks and whites are given the same opportunities and are treated equally. In regards to cocaine, there are more white users but more black are imprisoned. Where is the justice? Although we should live in a society where everyone is treated equally and everyone has the same opportunities at success, we do not. We can see this evident in regards to cocaine in that the US Supreme Court along with many others believes that there are no problems with the cocaine sentencing and that it is just. It is not just and people need to keep fighting for what is right.

http://www.iwu.edu/ccs/Illinois_Drug_Laws.htm

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/obama-signs-law-narrowing-cocaine-sentencing-disparities/?_r=0