Pubdate: Sat, 28 Mar 2009
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2009 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Sandro Contenta
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?140 (Rockefeller Drug Laws)

U.S. REPEALS DRUG LAWS WE FAVOUR

'Tough On Crime' Mandatory Jail Terms Being Ditched As Canadians Try Them Out

New York State is largely repealing the infamous drug laws that 
served as ground zero for a prison-sentencing craze that swept North 
America and is now discredited.

Governor David Paterson announced a deal with state legislators 
yesterday to remove many of the "mandatory minimum" sentences imposed 
for low-level drug crimes by the 1970s-era legislation, known as the 
Rockefeller drug laws.

After 35 years of stuffing prisons with minor drug felons, state 
legislators have judged the law's mandatory sentencing provisions as 
expensive and ineffective.

It's part of a reassessment of "tough on crime and sentencing" laws 
taking place across the United States, which has the highest 
incarceration rate in the developed world. Canada, ironically, is 
bucking that trend.

"Canadian policy-makers have picked up the cudgel of minimum 
mandatory sentences at the same time as Americans are trying to 
extricate themselves from them because they have proven to be so 
destructive," says Craig Jones, director of the John Howard Society, 
which reintegrates inmates in the community.

Canada's Conservative government last year increased the minimum 
prison time judges must impose for gun crimes. Last month, it 
reintroduced a bill that imposed minimum sentences for a long list of 
drug crimes. It includes a six-month sentence for someone caught 
growing even one marijuana plant for trafficking.

The toughest minimum sentence under the proposed drug law is three 
years for anyone creating a public safety hazard in a residential 
area by producing Schedule 1 drugs - such as cocaine, heroine or 
methamphetamine.

In another move being sold as "tough on crime," Public Safety 
Minister Peter Van Loan touted yesterday in Toronto his government's 
plans to stop judges from calculating a "two-for-one" sentencing 
credit for time that prisoners spend in pre-trial custody.

Experts are almost unanimous in denouncing the mandatory prison 
sentences as a recipe for swelling an already crowded prison system 
without reducing crime.

"The question is, 'How do we get the biggest bang for our buck?' " 
Anthony Doob, a University of Toronto criminologist said yesterday. 
"I would have thought these days the thing to do is use scarce 
resources effectively."

University of Ottawa criminologist Irvin Waller said the money would 
be better spent on outreach programs that target youth at risk, 
helping them to stay in school or training them for jobs.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson's office did not respond to a request 
for an interview. In a statement last month, Nicholson described the 
drug laws as a "measured response" that would jail those who sell or 
produce drugs, but allow a suspended or reduced sentence for addicts 
who accept treatment.

In the U.S., the Rockefeller drug laws spawned minimum mandatory 
sentences for all kinds of crimes. They resulted in a quadrupling of 
the inmate population between 1973 and the early 1990s across the 
country. Yet studies indicate that the incarceration explosion - 2.2 
million inmates in 2007 and $49 billion (U.S.) in prison costs - has 
done little to reduce crime.

The recession is forcing a growing number of states to rein in prison 
budgets. Some, like Kansas and Colorado, are closing prisons. 
Michigan, which spends more on incarceration than higher education, 
has eased its mandatory-minimum sentencing laws. New Jersey is 
replacing jail time with community programs. Others are making it 
easier to get parole.

The proposed changes to New York's drug laws, named for former 
governor Nelson Rockefeller, will hasten the national move away from 
decades of high-incarceration policies, said Marc Mauer, executive 
director of the Washington-based Sentencing Project.

"The experience with mandatory minimums is that it sweeps up a whole 
lower level of offenders and just a relative handful of higher ones. 
It's overkill," Mauer said. "Unless we address the demand for drugs, 
we're just recycling people through the prisons."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom