Int P oru
and
P age A3
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.
HOUSE TOO COLD?
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