Bill Clinton Admits 'Regret' on Crack Cocaine Sentencing March 4, 2008 USA Today By DeWayne Wickham PHILADELPHIA — It was an expression of regret that didn't seem to register with the knot of journalists who came to cover the event — an apology that deserves more than fleeting attention. In a keynote address last week at a University of Pennsylvania symposium commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Kerner Commission report on the causes of racial disturbances in the 1960s, Bill Clinton did what many politicians find hard to do: admit he made a big mistake. "I regret more than I can say that we didn't do more on it," he said about his administration's failure to end the disparate sentencing for people convicted of crack and powder cocaine offenses. "I'm prepared to spend a significant portion of whatever life I've got left on the earth trying to fix this because I think it's a cancer," the former president said of the devastating impact this sentencing imbalance has had on blacks. And, indeed, it is a cancer. Since they were first enacted in 1986, the federal sentencing guidelines have mandated the same prison terms for people convicted of selling 5 grams of crack cocaine as someone found guilty of selling 500 grams of powered cocaine. Blacks impacted most This disparate treatment of cocaine offenders has had a stark racial element to it since blacks are disproportionately more likely to be incarcerated for selling crack cocaine than whites and Hispanics who are more likely to be convicted of selling powered cocaine. In 1995, when the U.S. Sentencing Commission first recommended eliminating the 100-to-1 sentencing disparity, President Clinton opposed that change. Two years later, during a White House meeting with members of The Trotter Group, an organization of black columnists, Clinton said he would support a reduction in sentencing ratio. The following month, his administration urged Congress to narrow the crack-to-powder sentencing disparity down to 10-to-1. But federal lawmakers refused to do so, an inaction that has left black drug offenders to linger behind bars — serving nearly as much time in federal prisons as whites who were incarcerated for violent crimes. Congressional inaction Last year, the Sentencing Commission issued guidelines that will give judges the power to order a small reduction in the sentences of people imprisoned for selling crack cocaine. But Congress has shown little inclination to wipe out the sentencing guidelines. When I asked Clinton during an onstage interview after his speech whether he regretted not eliminating the sentencing disparity, he said that while it was "politically impossible" to get the reduction he sought through Congress, he now believes the 1986 guidelines were a mistake that have taken a heavy toll on blacks. "We sentenced with a shotgun instead of a rifle," he said of the congressional act. In addition to calling on Congress to end this disparity, Clinton said there also needs to be "an aggressive effort to pass federal legislation to restore voting rights to people as soon as they get out of jail." Blacks, who are just 13% of the nation's population, were 41.6% of state and federal prisoners in 2006 and as a result far more likely to be hurt by state laws that deny convicted felons the right to vote. While this was not the first time Clinton called for an elimination of the crack-to-powder sentencing disparity — he did so in a November 2000 Rolling Stone interview — it's the first time he has done it so unequivocally and forcefully. Of course, it's a good bet that what Clinton said last week won't sit well with many critics, who will say this is too little, too late. But I don't think his apology — or his pledge to help repair the damage done by the sentencing disparity — should be summarily dismissed. Of this nation's 43 presidents, Bill Clinton is one of a handful who has forged a meaningful bond with blacks. And I think the apology he offered last week is proof of his desire to maintain this friendship. DeWayne Wickham writes on Tuesdays for USA TODAY.