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. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin