Crack Offenders Set for Release Mostly Nonviolent, Study Says

The Justice Department opposed guideline reductions, but the commission pressed on. Last month, the commission created a list of 1,508 inmates who would be eligible for immediate release if their sentences were reduced under the guidelines and passed the names to the chief judge in each judicial district.

Michael S. Nachmanoff, a lawyer who studied the inmate list for the Eastern District of Virginia, which has the largest number of crack cases eligible for sentence reduction, and found that only 15 prisoners have a legitimate chance for release because of restrictions. The reductions are so moderate, he said, that the inmates would leave prison only a few months before they were scheduled to be released without them.

"We appreciate the commission's effort to identify people who are potentially eligible for release, but what we are finding is that the numbers are fewer than those identified by the commission," Nachmanoff said. "The suggestion that there will be many people released on March 3 is not borne out in the Eastern District of Virginia. These people aren't gang members. They're not overwhelmingly violent."

But that is how they were portrayed on Capitol Hill not only by Mukasey but also by Republicans on the Judiciary c Committee. "Many of these criminals are repeat offenders who possessed firearms during the commission of a crime," said Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.).

Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) said his gut told him that "if these people are released from prison, it will go right back into the communities where they were trafficking crack."

Near the end of the hearing, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) scolded Mukasey, saying that he misrepresented how the inmates would be released. They must return to the courts where they were tried and appear before judges who have vowed not to grant sentence reductions to convicts with violent histories, Waters said.

"Nobody's taking the key, unlocking the jails and saying, 'Everybody out.' That does not happen," Waters said.