Pubdate: Sun, 27 Mar 2005
Source: Times, The (Trenton, NJ)
Copyright: 2005 The Times
Contact:  http://www.nj.com/times/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/458
Author: Chris Karmiol
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?214 (Drug Policy Alliance)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

DRUG SENTENCING LAW OPPONENTS SEE A `NEW SLAVERY'

PRINCETON BOROUGH - New Jersey leads the nation. The state is number
one in its proportion of new prison admissions who are drug offenders,
according to a report issued by the Drug Policy Alliance, a group that
promotes alternatives to the so-called war on drugs.

At a Princeton University forum on minimum sentencing laws, the
executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, Ethan Nadelmann, put
it in a broader perspective.

The United States, with 5 percent of the world's population, boasts 25
percent of the world's prison population, Nadelmann said. "If you think
about it, prison is the closest thing we have in America today that
resembles slavery," he told the two dozen people who attended a public panel
yesterday, "The Politician's Addiction: Mandatory Minimum & Drug
Sentencing."

The Princeton Justice Project sponsored the forum as part of its
lecture series, "An Unjust Sentence."

"There's no doubt in my mind that this is the new slavery," said
Angelyn Frazer, organizing director of Families Against Mandatory
Minimums. "Particularly when you look across the country and see how
many people of color are incarcerated, and particularly since
incarceration is profit driven," she said.

Nadelmann, a former Princeton professor who has published articles on
the failed war on drugs everywhere from "Science" magazine to "Rolling
Stone," said that government officials no longer even like the term
"war on drugs" because of the failure associated with it. "We're never
going to have a drug-free society," Nadelmann said.

"There's never been a drug free society in history, except for the
Eskimos because they couldn't grow anything."

Reason, compassion and justice are the three standards that the Drug
Policy Alliance says should go into reformed drug laws. The
organization works nationwide to influence lawmakers and to educate
the public.

New Jersey assembled a commission last year to study reforming
mandatory sentencing laws and make recommendations to
legislators.

"New Jersey spends about $266 million a year just to incarcerate
non-violent drug offenders," said Roseanne Scotti of the Drug Policy
Alliance. "We have to get smarter about how we spend out money. We
simply can't afford to spend the way we do."

Most all of the audience at yesterday's forum expressed support for
the repeal and reform of mandatory sentencing laws.

"Mandatory sentencing does not take any human response or human
frailties within the judgment. You have a rule, you have a number and
that's it," said an attendee who declined to be identified. "Besides,
I'm really for the legalization of marijuana."

The Princeton Justice Project's next forum, "Racial Discrimination and
Sentencing," will be April 11 at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public
and International Affairs. The panel will include Princeton sociology
professor Cornel West.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin