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 veggie
Registered: 07/26/04
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 New bill would change mandatory drug laws [NJ] 
#11787666 - 01/08/10 03:57 AM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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New bill would change mandatory drug laws
January 8, 2010 - Courier Post
State judges are on the verge of getting back the authority to waive enhanced prison sentences now required for selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a school under legislation approved Thursday and sent to Gov. Jon S. Corzine.
The bill also could free some nonviolent offenders from state prisons.
Backers of the change, including state and county prosecutors, say the often three-year mandatory prison term now required should be changed because offenders in prison learn to become hardened criminals when drug treatment could be more effective. They also note it costs nearly $40,000 a year to house a prison inmate, while parole, probation and drug treatment programs cost significantly less.
Nearly one in five state inmates are serving mandatory minimum drug sentences. A state commission has concluded the law is unfair because far more area in cities falls within a school zone than in rural areas.
"At one time, these types of mandatory minimum laws were considered untouchable," said Roseanne Scotti, director of Drug Policy Alliance New Jersey. "But there is a growing public backlash against these failed policies and a growing willingness on the part of elected officials to address the mistakes of the past."
The Assembly voted 46-30 for the bill, which the Senate passed 25-11 last month. Votes fell mostly along party lines, with Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed.
The Assembly in June 2008 had passed a version of the bill 49-27 that didn't include a section added in November letting state inmates now serving mandatory minimum terms to appeal to judges for their release.
Such a change would bring the potential to save the state significant amounts of money for prison operations. It costs the state around $39,000 a year to house a prison inmate, compared with costs of around $10,000 a year for people on parole or probation.
The school-zone law was enacted in 1987. Since then, the portion of the prison population locked up for drug crimes has grown from 11 percent to 29 percent. Department of Corrections data indicate that some 4,800 inmates, nearly 19 percent of the prison population, are serving mandatory minimum drug terms, some for selling less than an ounce of cocaine or heroin.
Under the bill, a judge could waive or reduce the mandatory minimums, taking into account a defendant's prior criminal record, the seriousness of the offense, whether school was in session and whether children were or reasonably could have been nearby.
Mandatory minimums could not be trimmed for offenses that took place on school property, including school buses, or if the defendant threatened violence or had a firearm in his or her possession.
The change would allow judges to sentence defendants to the state's drug-court program, an intervention and treatment effort designed to correct behavior without sending nonviolent drug offenders to jail and exposing them to prison life.
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