美国国家公共电台 NPR--A bill that would have impacted racial disparity in cocaine crimes died in the Senate

A bill that would have impacted racial disparity in cocaine¹ crimes died in the Senate

Transcript²

The Senate failed to advance a bill that would have reduced one of the most persistent³ racial disparities in criminal justice: punishment for crack cocaine.(Story aired on ATC on Jan. 9, 2023.)

DWANE BROWN, HOST:

The war on drugs saw crack cocaine offenses⁴ punished more harshly than crimes involving powder cocaine. NPR's Carrie Johnson tells us about efforts to change a disparity that's hurt thousands of Black men.

CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE⁵: Orrin Jackson knows firsthand what the work of Congress means to people in prison.

ORRIN JACKSON: And I was away from my daughter for 31 years and two months. When I left, she was 6 months old.

JOHNSON: Jackson once expected to die behind bars, but he's now free and working in Charlotte, N.C. That's because lawmakers passed a bill in 2018 that gave him the chance to ask a judge for his release for drug crimes. Jackson remembers the reunion with his daughter.

JACKSON: And so it was just an amazing experience to be able to hug her and hold her as a free man.

JOHNSON: Jackson's one of many people who have traveled to Washington over the past two years, meeting with lawmakers to try to get them to pass the Equal Act. That bill would have equalized the punishment for certain cocaine crimes, making it the same for both crack and powder forms of the drug. The bill overwhelmingly passed the U.S. House, but it died in the Senate last month. Jackson says that news came like a slap in the face.

JACKSON: A slap in the face to where you're not important. You're not important as an agenda. You're not important as the issue.

JANOS MARTON: There's a real human cost to that. In the case of the Equal Act, there are 8,000 families that are not going to be reunited.

JOHNSON: That's Janos Marton. He's national director of the dream.org justice program, which lobbied for the bill.

MARTON: This was supposed to be the easy, commonsense⁶ bill that everybody could get behind.

JOHNSON: New Jersey⁷ Senator Cory Booker, a Democrat⁸, made that case last month as he pressed the Senate to vote.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

CORY BOOKER: Republicans and Democrats⁹, join together all across the political spectrum¹⁰ to say that this was wrong, that we should make these pharmacologically identical substances have the same punishment.

JOHNSON: Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican, responded that now is the wrong time to make drug laws more lenient¹¹.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TOM COTTON: This so-called Equal Act is likewise going to go easier on crack cocaine traffickers, including members of gangs and cartels. This will only exacerbate¹² our problems.

JOHNSON: Kevin Ring says both parties bear some blame for the bill's demise¹³. Republican opponents in the Senate refused to fast track the legislation, Ring says. But Democrats controlled the House, the Senate and the White House at the time.

KEVIN RING: Ultimately, Republican opposition¹⁴ is what stopped it from passing by unanimous consent. But it was a failure of leadership to not give us a vote, to give us a chance to win.

JOHNSON: Ring leads FAMM, a nonprofit group that advocates for people in prison and their families.

RING: These families were so close to getting relief. I mean, they were calculating their husband's release dates, thinking this was going to pass, and now it was yanked out from under them.

JOHNSON: The Senate failed to act, but last month, Attorney General Merrick Garland did. He instructed prosecutors¹⁵ to charge crack and powder cocaine crimes the same way moving forward starting this month. Advocates welcome that move, but it has some limits. The policy doesn't apply to people already in prison, and it could be reversed if a new attorney general decides to change course. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, tells NPR in a statement that he strongly believes in the Equal Act and won't give up on getting the bill done.

Orrin Jackson says he'll be watching.

JACKSON: And when you see something that's not fair, just and equitable¹⁶, you have a responsibility and a duty when you're in a position to change that.

JOHNSON: Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.

1 cocaine   

n.可卡因，古柯碱（用作局部麻醉剂）

参考例句：

• That young man is a cocaine addict.那个年轻人吸食可卡因成瘾。
• Don't have cocaine abusively.不可滥服古柯碱。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 persistent   

adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的

参考例句：

• Albert had a persistent headache that lasted for three days.艾伯特连续头痛了三天。
• She felt embarrassed by his persistent attentions.他不时地向她大献殷勤，使她很难为情。

4 offenses   

n.进攻( offense的名词复数 )；（球队的）前锋；进攻方法；攻势

参考例句：

• It's wrong of you to take the child to task for such trifling offenses. 因这类小毛病责备那孩子是你的不对。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Thus, Congress cannot remove an executive official except for impeachable offenses. 因此，除非有可弹劾的行为，否则国会不能罢免行政官员。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 commonsense   

adj.有常识的；明白事理的；注重实际的

参考例句：

• It is commonsense to carry an umbrella in this weather.这种天气带把伞是很自然的。
• These results are no more than a vindication of commonsense analysis.这些结果只不过是按常理分析得出的事实。

7 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

8 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

9 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

11 lenient   

adj.宽大的，仁慈的

参考例句：

• The judge was lenient with him.法官对他很宽大。
• It's a question of finding the means between too lenient treatment and too severe punishment.问题是要找出处理过宽和处罚过严的折中办法。

12 exacerbate   

v.恶化，增剧，激怒，使加剧

参考例句：

• WMO says a warming climate can exacerbate air pollution.世界气象组织说，气候变暖可能会加剧空气污染。
• In fact efforts will merely exacerbate the current problem.实际上努力只会加剧当前的问题。

13 demise   

n.死亡；v.让渡，遗赠，转让

参考例句：

• He praised the union's aims but predicted its early demise.他赞扬协会的目标，但预期这一协会很快会消亡。
• The war brought about the industry's sudden demise.战争道致这个行业就这么突然垮了。

14 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

15 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

16 equitable   

adj.公平的；公正的

参考例句：

• This is an equitable solution to the dispute. 这是对该项争议的公正解决。
• Paying a person what he has earned is equitable. 酬其应得,乃公平之事。