The Justice Department is moving further towards eliminating the 100:1 cocaine powder: crack disparity. On April 29, the Justice Department’s criminal division chief, Lanny A. Breuer, presented this written statement to the Senate on the matter.

Breuer’s statement talks of the creation of a Justice Department-created working group to examine federal sentencing and corrections policy. The group will focus “on formulating a new federal cocaine sentencing policy; one that completely eliminates the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine but also fully accounts for violence, chronic offenders, weapon possession and other aggravating factors associated — in individual cases — with both crack and powder cocaine trafficking.”

ADDENDUM: Thanks to Doug Berman for posting on this story, and the link to Breuer’s statement.