For years, criminal defense attorneys and experts on the federal justice system have noted that the federal sentencing guidelines for drug crimes were unjust. For example, they noted that convictions for crack possession and distribution were often based on far smaller amounts of the drug than for similar convictions involving powder cocaine - as much as 100 times less.

The result, critics said, was a racist and unjust system that sent African Americans, who were the majority of those convicted for crack crimes, to prison for far longer than whites, who were more likely to be convicted for cocaine-related offenses.

One public defender called the disparity in minimum sentences "one of the great stains on our federal criminal justice system" over the past 20 years. He said that under the old sentencing guidelines, a defendant could be sentenced to 5 years in prison for possessing just five grams of crack. On the other hand, a defendant would have to be convicted of possessing 500 grams of cocaine to face that much prison time.

Finally, in 2010, Congress acted to adjust the imbalance by passing the Fair Sentencing Act. The new law, which reduces the ratio from 100-to-1 to 18-to-1, led the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which interprets Congress' sentencing guidelines for the federal court system, to vote to make the new mandatory minimums retroactive. That decision, which went into effect on Oct. 31, means that some 12,000 incarcerated men and women convicted of possessing or distributing crack in the U.S. could have their sentence reduced.

The inmates can expect to have an average of three years taken off their sentences.

Source: CNN, "New rules slashing crack cocaine sentences go into effect," Carol Cratty, Nov. 1, 2011