Crack cocaine ruling begins freeing inmates

Bradlof Brown was caught selling 4 ounces of crack to an undercover informant in East Oak Lane in January 2004, and was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison.

But Brown, now 51, was released this week after prosecutors and defense lawyers agreed he was eligible for a reduction in his sentence, which U.S. District Judge Anita B. Brody then ordered.

Across the nation, prison doors are starting to open for as many as 19,500 inmates as the justice system takes steps to alleviate what many have long complained was a grievous injustice in federal sentencing - harsher prison terms for crack cocaine offenses than for powder cocaine.

In the Philadelphia region, Brown was among about 40 inmates to be released this week or in coming months under guidelines approved by the U.S. Sentencing Commission in December, and various estimates suggest about 700 in eastern Pennsylvania may be eligible for sentence reductions.

The longer sentences hit the African American community hard because black users tend to gravitate toward crack, which is more prevalent in poor urban areas, while white users go more for powder cocaine. The belief was that crack triggered more violent crime, so in the mid-1980s federal guidelines began requiring 100 times more powder cocaine than crack for the same prison term.

That led to growing criticism from defense lawyers, civil-rights activists, and even some judges who felt they had no discretion to impose more equitable sentences.

"This was terribly unfair," said former U.S. Distict Judge Stephen M. Orlofsky, who called the current sentence reductions "good news for our criminal-justice system."

Orlofsky, who presided in Camden before returning to the practice of law, said he hoped the move would revive faith among African Americans that they will be treated fairly in federal court.

The sentencing commission says 600 to 700 federal prisoners across Pennsylvania could be affected and about 150 in New Jersey, though some in the system considered such estimates very conservative.

Bernadette McKeon, a federal prosecutor in Philadelphia assigned to oversee the review of crack sentences, said the vast majority of those slated for release so far were low- or midlevel offenders. "With the more serious offenders, we anticipate there will be other factors which may preclude their eligibility for a reduction," she said.

McKeon said that judges could deny the petitions, and that her office would oppose efforts to release career criminals and those serving mandatory prison terms. "It's our position that those factors would disqualify them," she said.

Felicia Sarner, supervisory assistant federal defender, said those being released had already served too long. "They were sentenced to sentences that were grossly longer than they should have been," she said.

She said that the 100-1 sentencing ratio was "shockingly indefensible," and that kingpins who trafficked in powder cocaine had gotten shorter sentences than street-corner defendants who sold crack. "It turned the system on its head," Sarner said.

The commission set the stage for the early releases after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in December that federal judges were no longer bound by the guidelines that called for stiffer sentences in crack cases.

While prosecutors and defenders reached agreement on the 40 or so defendants in line for release, both sides anticipate disputes in some other cases.

"We're carefully reviewing the motions that are filed," Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Zauzmer said. "We're trying to get through a very large number of cases in a deliberate way."

Attorney Robert Datner said he was glad to hear that his client, Brown, had been released. He called Brown, who is black, a "very low-level" defendant who served as a "middleman" in a transaction sought by an undercover informant working for federal drug agents.

"I don't consider him to be your classic drug-dealer-type person," Datner said.