Pubdate: Wed, 26 Jan 2005
Source: Star-Ledger (NJ)
Copyright: 2005 Newark Morning Ledger Co
Contact:  http://www.nj.com/starledger/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/424
Author: Tom Hester, Star-Ledger Staff
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?159 (Drug Courts)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

GROUP TO URGE EXPANDING STATE DRUG COURTS

Bolstered by a poll it commissioned, a national group that opposes some 
mandatory sentencing laws said yesterday it will push for expansion of drug 
courts in New Jersey and elimination of required three-year jail terms for 
selling or buying drugs within 1,000 feet of a school.

Families Against Mandatory Minimums said 80 percent of New Jerseyans favor 
mandatory treatment and community service for low-level, nonviolent drug 
offenders instead of mandatory minimum prison terms, according to a poll by 
the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University.

In New Jersey, the corrections commissioner, some lawmakers and the courts 
are looking at the expense and fairness of mandatory sentencing for 
low-level drug offenders. A year-old 15-member panel created by former Gov. 
James E. McGreevey is examining the state's sentencing standards.

Of the 16,746 inmates serving mandatory minimum sentences in the state 
prison system, 11,940 or 71.3 percent were sentenced on drug charges.

"New Jersey residents are ready for the kind of sensible, cost-effective 
reforms that have been implemented by other states across the country," 
said Laura Sager, national campaign director for Families Against Mandatory 
Minimums.

Sager said it costs the state $84,000 to imprison someone for three years 
and $19,800 for a six-month residential drug treatment program.

"Studies show that treatment programs are more effective and less expensive 
than prisons," said John Hulick, public policy director for the National 
Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependency-New Jersey. "Rather than wasting 
costly prison beds on low-level drug offenders, New Jersey should expand 
its popular drug treatment programs and reform mandatory sentencing laws 
that prevent judges from determining appropriate sentences."

The state court system began drug courts in 1995 and by last March, they 
were operating in all 21 counties. More than 4,400 low-level offenders who 
were not arrested in drug-free zones have been ordered to receive 
treatment, frequent testing and parole supervision through the courts. The 
courts boast a 73 percent success rate.

At least three legislators, Assemblymen Wilfredo Caraballo (D-Essex) and 
William D. Payne (D-Essex) and Sen. John H. Adler (D-Camden), chairman of 
the Senate Judiciary Committee, support a reassessment of mandatory minimum 
sentences for low-level drug offenders.

Deirdre Fedkenheuer, spokeswoman for state Corrections Commissioner Devon 
Brown, said he "believes that drug policies should be ... fair and 
appropriate in their applications. He feels there may be some discrepancies 
in rural and urban areas, especially in drug-free school zones."

The Eagleton poll, conducted Oct 1-4, 2004, surveyed 804 New Jersey 
residents and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
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