Hundreds of Pennsylvania inmates could be eligible for reduced sentences

    If a federal commission decides to make new cocaine sentencing guidelines retroactive, more than 500 Pennsylvania inmates could become eligible for reduced sentences.

    The guidelines — signed into federal law in August — acknowledge the difference between the use and possession of crack cocaine and powder cocaine, as WHYY’s Susan Phillips reports. If the sentencing guidelines are made retroactive, hundreds of inmates in the state (mostly black and Hispanic men) would become eligible for new sentencing hearings.

    It could be several months before a decision is made.

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