Members of the U.S. Sentencing Commission were sharply critical of the U.S. Justice Department's contention that retroactively cutting the sentences of about 19,500 crack-cocaine offenders would glut the court system, the Washington Post reported Nov. 14.

Gretchen C.F. Shappert, a U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, cited concern about "the unforeseen consequences of releasing such large numbers of convicted drug offenders into vulnerable communities in a relatively short period of time," including backlogging court cases and stressing halfway houses. She also suggested that making the sentence reductions retroactive would result in setting violent offenders free.

However, federal judges, public defenders and activists were joined by a pair of commission members, Ruben Castillo and Beryl A. Howell, in challenging Shappert's assertions. Castillo said that prosecutors would have the opportunity to challenge any early releases and prevent violent offenders from being released. And Howell said that Justice's statements about the impact of the releases on the courts and communities was "totally wrong."

Howell said the releases would take years to process and that not all of the 19,500 offenders would win release. Estimates on the cost of the release by a U.S. Marshals Service official also were challenged as false and exaggerated.

The commission is expected to vote on retroactivity in January. Congress recently cleared the commission's plan to cut crack sentences to bring them more into line with sentences for powdered-cocaine offenses.