The new USSC cocaine report is here, the new USSC cocaine report is here....

I feel a bit like Navin R. Johnson (from the Steve Martin classic "The Jerk") to be so excited about the release of a huge report with lots of numbers.  Still, the release of the US Sentencing Commission's "fourth report to Congress on the subject of federal cocaine sentencing policy" is a bit more exiting than a new phone book, and you can now access all 200+ pages of the new USSC report at this link.

The first chapter of the new report provides an overview of all the essential basics, and here is one of many findings from that chapter that ought to ripple through post-Booker sentencing developments:

Current data and information continue to support the core findings contained in the 2002 Commission Report, among them:

(1) The current quantity-based penalties overstate the relative harmfulness of crack cocaine compared to powder cocaine.

(2) The current quantity-based penalties sweep too broadly and apply most often to lower level offenders.

(3) The current quantity-based penalties overstate the seriousness of most crack cocaine offenses and fail to provide adequate proportionality.

(4) The current severity of crack cocaine penalties mostly impacts minorities.

Based on these findings, the Commission maintains its consistently held position that the 100-to-1 drug quantity ratio significantly undermines the various congressional objectives set forth in the Sentencing Reform Act.

Related posts on the USSC new crack work:

• USSC provides (yummy?) half-a-loaf crack amendment
• Why the USSC's new crack work is soooooo significant
• How will the new USSC crack work impact present (and past) cases?
• Previewing the (quite unpredictable) new federal politics of crack sentencing
• Conclusive proof old crack guidelines unreasonable
• Time to get crackin' on crack sentencing reform