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and
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O bserver • N ovember 1, 1995
Drug Sentencing Bill Called Race Based
The drug-sentencing bill, H R
2259, attracted little notice in Wash­
ington, compared with the attention
focused on the pitched debate over
the future o f health care and welfare.
But prisoner rights groups say
word o f its passage flashed through
federal prisons across the country.
And soon after there were rum­
blings o f possible disturbances.
Prison officials will not say if
they believe the uprisings that fol­
lowed were related to Congress’ vote.
But the disturbances have suddenly
drawn attention to the debate over
mandatory federal sentencing laws
for crack cocaine offenses.
These laws, which Congress
voted to maintain in the bill,
are harsher than those for pow­
dered cocaine crimes, and many say
they have a disproportionate impact
on poor, black men
“ It is both unfair, impractical
and u n w arran ted ," said Laura
Murphy, director o f the American
C ivil Liberties Union in Washing­
ton, who called race issues in the
criminal justice system “the new fron­
tier” o f civil rights.
“ How can you go to an inner-
city family and tell them their son is
given 20 years, while someone in the
suburbs who’ s using powdered co­
caine in greater quantities can get off
with 90 days’ probation? When peo­
ple understand the truth about the
way these laws are imposed, the fact
they’ ve had no deterrent, and the
race-based nature o f these prosecu­
tions, then I think a sleeping giant is
going to roar.’’
But others say the violence and
addiction that lie in the crack epi­
demic’s wake explain why such of­
fenses are more harshly punished
“ What about the gangs, the ri­
valries, the shootings, the killings?”
said J im Shedd, an agent and spokes­
man for the Drug Enforcement Ad­
ministration in Miami.
“ Everybody’s forgotten about
the amount o f violence that goes with
crack cocaine It's not a racist
thing, but unfortunately that’s what
it’s turned into.”
During the march on Washing­
ton by hundreds o f thousands of black
men, and later in an emotional
debate on the floor o f the House of
Representatives, speakers de­
cried federal laws that say it takes
100 times more powdered cocaine to
draw the same mandatory' minimum
sentence of five years in prison that
awa is a person convicted o f pos­
sessing five grams o f crack
The U S. Sentencing Commis­
sion. created by Congress to draft,
monitor and amend sentencingguide-
lines for the federal courts, recom­
mended that legislators scrap the 100-
to-l ratio, and make equal the
amounts o f crack and cocaine pow­
der that draw the same base sentenc­
es. It suggested a number of enhance­
ments that would more severely pun­
ish offenders who had also used a
weapon or committed other crimes.
Instead lawmakers passed legis­
lation that rejected those recommen­
dations and urged the body to re­
examine its findings.
The Congressional Black Cau­
cus sent a letter to President Bill
Clinton urging him to veto Con­
gress’ bill.
Rep M axine W aters, D -C a-
l i f , who attacked the sentencing
laws during the H o u se ’ s debate,
has written to prison wardens
asking them to relay to Attorney
General Janet Reno their co n ­
cerns about the impact o f the
uneven penalties.
Crack is the only drug that car­
ries a mandatory prison term for pos­
session, whether or not the intent is to
distribute, said Paul Martin, deputy
staffdirector for the sentencing com­
mission.
Possession o f heroin or pow­
dered cocaine, without intent to sell,
is a misdemeanor carrying a maxi­
mum o f one year in jail.
The commission had also sought
to make punishment for simple
crack possession equal to that of
other drugs.
Although federal statistics find
that hal f o f crack users are wh ite, the
sale and use o f the substance, a cheap­
er form o f cocaine, is often concen­
trated in poor, urban, minority com­
munities, experts say.
Last year, 90 percent o f those
convicted o f federal crack offenses
were black, and 3.5 percent were
white, sentencing commission o ffi­
cials say. By contrast, 25.9 percent o f
those convicted on federal powdered
cocaine charges were white, 29.7
percent were black and 42.8 percent
were Hispanic.
“ When we saw those statistics,"
said Judge Richard P.
Conaboy, the sentencing com­
mission’ s chairman, "our theory was
a law, no matter how well-intentioned
it was, if it’s causing such discrepant
results, then the law has to be changed
and a new method has to be installed."
Gingrich Presents Contradiction
Ever since Newt Gingrich as­
cended to power in January, he has
presented a perplexing profile on the
subject o f race.
He is the white leader o f à con­
servative revolution whose aim is to
shrink the government’s role in so­
cial welfare and return power to the
states, yet he also calls for compas­
sion and preaches the moral impera­
tive o f lifting the underclass up from
poverty.
When Gingrich, a fiercely parti­
san Georgia Republican was sworn
in January, he credited the “ liberal
wing o f the Democratic Party" for
ending segregation.
He went on to use that momen­
tous occasion to remind his new flock
o f “ the moral urgency o f coming to
grips with what’s happening to the
poorest Americans.”
After the M illion Man March,
he iflade an impassioned speech to a
group o f white conservatives:
“ I do n ’ t think any white co n ­
servative anyw here in A m erica
ought to look at L o uis Farrakhan
and ju st condemn him without
askin g yo urse lf: “ Where were you
when the ch ild ren died? W here
were you when the schools failed?
W here were you when they had
no ho pe?”
Gingrich has stood as a protec­
tor o f the destitute District o f Colum­
bia and although he opposes quotas,
he has not called for an end to affir­
mative action.
Two portraits hang in his office
in the Capitol, those ofGeorge Wash­
ington and Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr.
Yet, G ingrich’s critics see an
unbridgeable gulf between his talk
and his actions. Under Gingrich’s
leadership, the House has set about
overhauling the nation’s landmark
social welfare programs - Medicare,
Medicaid, welfare, the earned in­
come tax credit, to name a few - that
critics say w ill surely increase the
hardships o f those trying to escape
poverty.
“ There’s a massive contradic­
tion,” said Ronald Walters, chair­
man o f the political science depart­
ment at Howard University “ He set
a theme o f racial reconciliation and
harmony, and yet when you look at
his support for the new crime bill and
welfare reform and the devolution o f
power to the local level and the build­
ing o f prisons, with no emphasis on
rehabilitation, and the destruction o f
HU D and the withdrawal o f resourc­
es, these are all deleterious to the life
o f inner city residents.”
One o f the starkest displays o f
the gap between his words and his
actions is evident in the case o f the
District o f Columbia.
Unlike President Clinton, who
made a brief foray into a black neigh­
borhood when he first moved to
Washington and made no further
public overtures, Gingrich appeared
far more committed.
Saying he wanted to make Wash­
ington an “ urban jew el,” the speaker
formed an unusual alliance with
Mayor Marion S Barry Jr., a Demo­
crat, sat through a long town meeting
with local residents and intervened
when a House subcommittee pro­
posed to curtail the district’s right to
self-government.
But when Gingrich recently sup­
ported severe budget cuts that city
officials did not expect. Barry, who
was not warned or consulted, said
that Gingrich had betrayed their bond
o f trust and that the cuts would wreak
havoc on the city.
At the M illion Man March, in­
stead o f being praised as the “trans­
formational figure” he likes to piesent
himself as, Gingrich was harshly re­
pudiated as a force o f destruction.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson com ­
pared him to B u ll C onnor, the
racist Alabam a p olice ch ie f, say­
ing G in g ric h ’ s p o licie s inspired
hundreds o f thousands o f black
men to march on W ashington last
week in the same way C o nno r
inspired the legendary march for
c iv il rights in 1963.
V O L U N T E E R S
Hormone
Replacement Study
Healthy women volunteers are needed for a two-year
research study. The study will help determine whether
investigational hormone replacement can prevent bone loss.
You may qualify if you:
• are 45 years of age or older and have a uterus
• are at least one year, but not more than five years,
past menopause
M *
Participants will receive the following at no charge:
• study-related medication
• calcium supplements
• bone density measurement
• laboratory tests
• mammograms
• physical and gynecological exams
For information, call the
Osteoporosis Research Center
Congress Vote May Cause Harm
Portland area activists have
urged Oregon’ s congressional dele­
gation to support a controversial res­
olution opposing major rollbacks in
environmental protection.
A congressional committee w ill
meet within days to reconcile the
separate appropriations bills for the
Environmental Protection Agency
passed by the House and Senate.
A motion by Reps. Sherwood
Boehlert, R -N .Y . and Louis Stokes
D, Ohio, to instruct the conference
committee to strip from the bill a
series o f amendments, or “ riders,”
that would prohibit the EPA from
enforcing critical provisions o f sev­
eral major environmental laws.
LeslieCagle,asurgeonat South­
west Washington Medical Center and
board member o f the Portland Chap­
ter o f Physicians for Social Respon­
sibility, called on Oregon’s repre­
sentatives to vote with the health o f
their constituents foremost in their
minds.
“ C le a n a ir and clean water
are not lu x u rie s. They are the
e s s e n t ia l e le m e n ts o f g o o d
health,” she said. “ I f we ca n 't
enforce the law s that protect our
a ir and water, the results w ill be
more sick n e ss and disease, as
w ell as high er health costs.”
Jonathan Poisner, conservation
chair for the Oregon Chapter o f the
Sierra Club, noted that the restric­
tions on the E P A ’ s regulatory au­
thority were inserted into the agen­
c y ’s budget at the specific urging o f
lobbyists for polluting industries.
“ These riders are clearly meant
to fulfill the fantasies o f big poilut-
ers. Unless they are removed, their
dreams w ill become our nightmare,”
he said.
Randy Tucker, environmental
advocate for the Oregon State Public
Interest Research Group, said that
the House leadership was making a
serious miscalculation in opposing
environmental protection. “ A ll year
long, Congress has been thumbing
its nose at us by gutting environmen­
tal protections,” he observed. “ These
riders send the message that cam­
paign contributions from special in­
terests are more important than the
health o f American citizens.
This w ill be the third vote on the
contentious issue o f attaching restric­
tive riders to the E P A ’ s funding.
On July 28, Reps, Boehlert and
Stokes introduced an amendment to
the House version o f the EPA budget
that would have removed all o f the
anti-environmental riders that had
been added in committee. These rid­
ers ban the expenditure o f funds to
enforce key elements o f the Clean
Air Art Clean Water Act, Safe Drink
ing Water Act, and Superfund laws.
The House narrowly approved
the amendment, with 50 Republi­
cans in support. However, in an un­
usual parliamentary maneuver, the
House leadership called for another
vote on July 3 1. This time the amend­
ment was defeated on a tie vote, 2 10,
210. The EPA budget was then passed
with the riders attached. Oregon's
representatives voted along party
lines on each vote, with the Republi­
cans voting to keep the destructive
riders in the bill.
In September, the Senate ap­
proved a similar version which in­
cludes a smaller budget cut and few­
er riders than the bill passed by the
W A N I E Í)
(503) 215-6465
House, but would still be extremely
damaging to public health and the
environment.
t
P ro v id e n c e
P o rt la n d
M edical C e n te r
Food Stamps Benefits To Change
A recent action by the U .S.
C o n g re s s w i l l m ean an o th e r
change in O regon food stamp
benefits on N ovem ber I.
On October 21, the President
signed the budget b ill for the U.S.
D epartm entof A g riculture. In that
b ill. Congress included a p ro vi­
sion ro llin g back a sm all increase
granted to food stamp recipients
on October I. The rollback w ill
mean a reduction o f $1 to $2 in the
amount o f food stamps for many
Oregon fam ilies, beginning with
their Novem ber benefits. The ac­
tion is expected to save $ 1 1 m il­
lion nationally each month, the
new change invo lves the “ stan­
dard deduction" that is subtracted
from a fa m ily ’ s income when their
food stamp benefits are calculat­
ed. That deduction was ju st in ­
creased as part o f a number o f
changes made October 1. C o n ­
g ress’ action returns the standard
deduction to its former level. Fam­
ilie s who don’ t have income w ill
not be affected by the change.
A p p ro xim ate ly 1 31 ,0 0 0 O r­
egon ho useh o lds, made up o f
2 8 7 ,0 0 0 peo p le, re c e iv e food
stam ps each month. The average
amount o f food stamps received
by a household is $ 16 0 a month.
T w o d iv is io n o f the state D e­
partment o f Human R esources -
A d u lt & F am ily S e rvice s, and
Se n io r and D isab led S e rvice s -
ad m in ister the program .
The cost o f food stamps
is paid by the federal g overn­
ment, with ad m in istrative costs
fin a n ce d by state and federal
funds.
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