WASHINGTON – As many as 12,000 people in federal prison for crack-related crimes can get their sentences reduced as a result of a new law that brought penalties more closely in line with those for powdered cocaine, a government commission ruled Thursday.

The decision by the U.S. Sentencing Commission applies to about 1 in 17 inmates in the federal system.

Congress last year substantially lowered the sentences for crack-related crimes such as possession and trafficking, changing a 1980s law that was criticized as racially discriminatory because it came down extra hard on a drug common in poor, black neighborhoods.

The question before the commission Thursday was whether people already locked up under the old law should benefit retroactively from the changes. The six-member commission unanimously decided in their favor.

“I believe that the commission has no choice but to make this right,” said Ketanji Brown Jackson, a vice chairwoman of the commission. “I say justice demands this result.”

The NAACP was among the groups praising the commission’s action. About 85 percent of the inmates expected to benefit from the decision are black.

The commission’s action is final unless Congress decides by the end of October to intervene, and that is considered unlikely.

Prisoners will have to petition a judge for a sentence reduction, and requests will be decided on a case-by-case basis, with the court taking into consideration the defendant’s behavior in prison and danger to society.

About 12,000 of the roughly 200,000 people in federal prisons will be eligible to have their sentences cut. The average reduction is expected to be about three years. Inmates convicted under state law will not be affected.

 

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