8 Reasons President Obama’s Move to Free Blacks from Prison Is Not What It's Hyped Up To Be

Obama Signs "Not So" Fair Sentencing Act In 2010, President Obama signed the so-called Fair Sentencing Act to address the disparity of harsher sentencing for crack cocaine offenders (who were more likely to be Black) compared to powder cocaine offenders (who were mostly white). The sentencing disparity didn’t end, however—it was merely reduced. The ratio went from 100:1 to 18:1. The Obama Administration Fought to Keep Thousands of Black People Behind Bars In a recent article, Margaret Kimberley, a writer for the Black Agenda Report, writes that just two years ago, “the president had an opportunity to free at least 5,000 people from federal prisons." They were all imprisoned before the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act. Yet, even though Obama's Administration, including Eric Holder, admitted the laws were unfair, they fought against and successfully appealed a federal court ruling which would have given those persons, mostly poor and mostly Black, the right to request re-sentencing. For some strange reason, the entire U.S. mainstream media were unanimous in keeping quiet on this Obama administration victory. Obama's Clemency Grants are Not Even a Drop in the Bucket Since the Obama administration announced last year that it would grant clemency to nonviolent drug offenders, more than 35,000 inmates, or about 17 percent of the federal prison population, have applied for early release, according to a July Washington Post article. Only a total of 89 were granted by the Obama administration to date. via vocativ.com Prison Reform Focusing on Non-Violent Drug Offenders Doesn't Go Far Enough An article released by The Root states that, “even if we released every single person in prison because of a drug conviction, America would still have over 1.5 million people in jail.” This figure is equivalent to the entire population of Philadelphia. Drug offenders comprise only 20 percent of offenders in state prisons. Violent offenders comprise about half. "We could release all drug offenders today, but without other significant changes in laws and penal policies and practices, the United States would still have an incarceration crisis, " writes Marie Gottschalk in a June 2015 Boston Review article. Changes to Current Laws Are Unlikely to Go Far Enough Any effective prison reform would need to repeal mandatory minimum, truth-in-sentencing, and habitual offender laws, including three-strikes statutes. Michael Collins, policy director of the Drug Policy Alliance, an advocacy group, says that the primary cause of the mass imprisonment in the U.S. is mandatory minimum sentences. “You cannot talk about sentencing reform without addressing mandatory minimums,” Michael Collins told the Guardian. “It’s the main driver of mass incarceration in this country.” It's unlikely that these laws will be dismantled to significantly reduce the prison population. Marie Gottschalk writes: "Vested interests will fight against attempts to dismantle the carceral state. Prison guards’ unions, state departments of corrections, law enforcement associations, the private corrections industry, and the financial firms that devise bonds and other mechanisms to fund prison infrastructure all stand in the way of a deep reduction in the incarcerated population." Federal Prison Reform Could Have Little Effect on Most Prisoners Most of the proposed reforms by President Obama and the U.S. Congress would only affect the federal prison system, which is about 208,000 people, according to the Bureau of Prisons. The vast majority of the 2.5 million people under supervision of the correctional system serve or have served time in state facilities. (Image: okayplayer.com) Obama's Prison Reform Doesn't Address Illegally Imposed Sentences According to a New York Times article, there are currently thousands of prisoners “sitting in prison serving sentences that were illegally imposed.” Many believe that these prisoners rights are intentionally being ignored due to the fact that most of them are Black. The article speculates that, “if the 'floodgates' opened, too many others — mostly poor, mostly black — would have to be released.” The article continues to argue that “the Obama administration’s fear of the political ramifications of thousands of poor minority prisoners being released at once around the country, what Justice William J. Brennan Jr. once called 'a fear of too much justice,' is the real justification.” via chicagodefender.com Obama Administration's Prison Reform Doesn't Address Racism Among Law Enforcement and Prosecutors An article released by Common Dreams warns that “police departments will remain free to conduct their 'war on drugs' almost exclusively in poor and minority communities.” In addition, “prosecutors will still be able to coerce defendants into accepting plea bargains, and threaten them with longer sentences if they go to trial.” While Obama's prison reform may positively affect hundreds of prisoners, it does not attack the issue at the source. "Major reductions in the prison population won’t happen unless law enforcement officers buys in," writes Marie Gottschalk . "Without their support and coordination among them, attempts to reduce the prison population will remain an often-futile game of whack-a-mole, where single-minded focus on any one or two fixes leaves the highly adaptive carceral state otherwise intact."

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