SAN FRANCISCO – Responding to the U.S. Senate’s passage of a bill that reduces, but does not eliminate the disparity between prison sentences for crack and powder cocaine offenders, activists delivered more than 85,000 petition signatures from across the country to the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday afternoon. The petitions call on Pelosi and the House to support legislation that would fully eliminate the sentencing disparity.

The sentencing disparity has become a defining symbol of race-based bias in the criminal justice system given that possession of crack, which is often found in low-income black communities, is treated much more harshly than possession of powder cocaine, the kind more prevalent in white and wealthier communities.

“For purely political reasons, the Senate passed a bill that would keep an unjust, racially discriminatory sentencing disparity in place,” said James Rucker, Executive Director of ColorOfChange.org.

“Our members are calling on Speaker Pelosi to fight to completely end this injustice, and to reject the kind of political horse-trading that throws the most vulnerable among us under the bus.”

Today’s sentencing laws treat five grams of crack cocaine the same as 500 grams of powder cocaine — a disparity of 100-to-1. The Senate’s plan would reduce the disparity to 18-to-1, changing the law so that 28 grams of crack would trigger the same sentence as 500 grams of powder cocaine.

After the Senate’s vote last month, ColorOfChange.org joined with fellow online activist community CREDO Action and sent e-mails to its members asking them to sign the petition that calls on Speaker Pelosi to push for a bill that establishes a 1-to-1 sentencing ratio. Together they collected over 85,000 petition signatures and delivered them to Speaker Pelosi outside of her San Francisco office building.

“A sentencing disparity – whether at 100-to-1 or 18-to-1 – does nothing to stem addiction or reduce crime,” said Becky Bond, Political Director of CREDO. “Our members want to see real reform this year, and they want Speaker Pelosi to advance a just plan to eliminate the sentencing disparity.”

rWith more than 600,000 members, ColorOfChange.org is the largest African-American online political organization in the country.