By Pete Williams, NBC News Justice Correspondent
The Justice Department is worried that nearly 1,600 convicted crack dealers, many of them violent gang members, could soon be released from prison when new federal sentencing rules go into effect.
Attorney General Michael Mukasey is asking Congress to blunt the effect of the new sentencing rules. They will allow nearly 20,000 inmates nationwide - many of them violent drug offenders - to get out of prison early.
In the largest single act ever to reduce the sentences of federal prisoners, the U.S. Sentencing Commission late last year required early release for thousands of inmates. Its decision applied to those who got disproportionately long sentences because of rules that imposed hasher penalties for possessing or dealing crack cocaine than for crimes involving powder cocaine.
Now the Justice Department says that unless Congress acts within one month - by March 3 - nearly 1,600 convicted crack dealers will be eligible for immediate release into communities nationwide.
"Many of these offenders are among the most serious and violent offenders in the federal system, and their early release, at a time when violent crime is rising in some communities, will produce tragic, but predictable results," warns Attorney General Michael Mukasey, in remarks prepared for a hearing tomorrow before the House Judiciary Committee.
"These individuals could very well be released without the benefit of appropriate re-entry programs, increasing the risks of recidivism and further imperiling the safety of the communities to which they would return," Mukasey says.
Prisoners must qualify for release
Justice Department officials will ask Congress to make early release available only to non-violent, first-time offenders. Such a restriction would drastically reduce the number of prisoners who qualify. No precise numbers are available, but one official said it would cut the number eligible by well over two-thirds.
Supporters of early release say the Justice Department is overstating the potential effect on communities. They say many of those getting out early will have served ten to 15 years and are past the most crime-prone ages.
If Congress is willing to change the law and restrict early release, officials say, the Justice Department would retreat from its long-standing support of rules that maintain the current disparity between penalties for crack versus powder offenses. Under the current system, offenders with a given amount of crack cocaine receive the same sentence as an offender who had 100 times that amount in powder cocaine.
The crack-powder disparity has been widely criticized, in part because of the racial disparity of drug sentences. Over 80 percent crack offenders are black.
