( CNN ) -- `` The arc of the moral universe is long , but it bends toward justice . '' -- Martin Luther King Jr. Why so long ? As I watched the announcement by Attorney General Eric Holder this past week in San Francisco -- that federal prosecutors would no longer invoke mandatory minimum sentencing laws for certain low-level , nonviolent drug offenders -- I kept asking myself : `` Why so long ? '' Pardon me if I am underwhelmed by the sudden turnaround , especially in light of the evidence having been overwhelming for the past 40 years that we have been on the wrong path . These mandatory minimums were a bad idea when they were first proposed . Not because I say so , but because the evidence leads to almost no other conclusion . I came of age during America 's crack epidemic and I have seen the results of this scourge on our society in my own family , where family members have suffered , their lives affected and dreams shattered . But putting them on lockdown because a judge had no discretion whatsoever was never the answer to any prayer . Not for my family , not for the millions whose `` lives have been wasted due to the drug war and the types of police tactics that have been deployed in the get-tough-on-crime movement , '' as author and law professor Michelle Alexander noted . As reported last week , amid the crack epidemic a generation ago , state and federal lawmakers had enacted a wave of tough crime measures that resulted in a nearly 800 % increase in the number of prisoners in the United States , even as the population grew by only a third . The result ? An increase in the number of African-American and Hispanic men convicted of drug crimes , with black men about six times as likely as white men to be incarcerated . Or in the vernacular we used back in the day when fighting against these discriminatory laws , `` Crack is used in the streets , cocaine in the suites . '' And yet , one had to get caught with 100 times more powder cocaine than crack to get the same sentence . I call that racist . Even in the Obama era , although President Obama initially campaigned on a one-to-one ratio in this area of sentencing , what he signed into law in 2010 was 18-to-1 . Better , but not nearly good enough . The attorney general chose the right place to make his announcement . In California the impact these draconian laws have had on prison overcrowding and related issues is front page news almost daily . The once `` Golden State '' has been ordered to release nearly 10,000 inmates from its overcrowded prisons by the end of the year to resolve a problem of `` cruel and unusual punishment '' that 's been brewing for years due to , what else ? You guessed it , an overly aggressive increase in sentencing . So , with all of this data , why so long for this major shift on crime ? The answers are plentiful but the motive may be singular . I would like to believe that it 's about a shift in our morals ; that our nation has finally come to the conclusion that being the world 's leader on lockdowns is neither socially sustainable nor a just way to treat fellow citizens . But , alas , I 'm not that naive . It 's about money . Pure and simple . As a nation , we have a habit every bit as addictive as the habits of many of the folk we 've locked away . We 've been addicted to the drug of incarceration , and now we can no longer afford our expensive habit . Things are `` breaking bad '' for us too . Time for rehab . Of course , like most addictions , this habit wo n't be easy to break . But let 's hope this time around we get the help we need and come to our senses about how to better spend our dollars . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Tavis Smiley .
Tavis Smiley : I 'm underwhelmed at Holder 's decision to avert mandatory minimum sentences . What took so long ? Such sentences have been a disaster from the beginning , he says . He says tough-on-crime laws made incarceration jump 800 % ; blacks , Hispanics bore brunt . Smiley : Why is U.S. no longer willing to do this ? Not morals , sadly -- it just got too expensive .