Pubdate: Fri, 8 Jan 2010
Source: Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ)
Copyright: 2010 Newark Morning Ledger Co
Contact:  http://www.nj.com/starledger/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/424
Cited: Families Against Mandatory Minimums http://www.famm.org/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)

MANDATORY TERMS FOR DRUG SALES NEAR SCHOOLS SET TO END

People busted for some drug offenses near schools should no longer
face mandatory prison sentences, lawmakers decided yesterday.

Assembly members voted 46-30 to send the bill (A2762) to the
governor's desk for final approval.

The state has imposed mandatory prison terms of one to three years for
people caught dealing drugs within 1,000 feet of a school since 1987.

"The mandatory minimum sentencing the zones require has effectively
created two different sentences for the same crime, depending on where
an individual lives," Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Mercer)
said. "This is geographic discrimination at its most basic."

Supporters of the bill say those sentences have unnecessarily stuffed
New Jersey prisons with nonviolent offenders who deserve probation or
access to treatment programs.

Almost 70 percent of the 6,720 drug offenders serving time in state
prisons have mandatory minimum sentences, according to the Department
of Corrections.

Most of the bill's opponents were Republicans.

"The drug dealers know where the school zones are," Assemblyman Jon
Bramnick (R-Union) said. "Once you take the consequences away, you
open up more fertile ground for selling drugs."

The bill passed yesterday would allow judges to reduce the required
minimum sentence or impose probation, depending on whether the offense
occurred when school was in session, its proximity to school grounds,
and if children were present.

Sentences could not be reduced if the offense took place on school
grounds or if it involved violence or a gun. In addition, the bill
will allow current inmates to appeal the mandatory minimum sentences
they've already received.

The bill passed 24-11 in the Senate on Dec. 10, then returned to the
Assembly for final approval yesterday. In the last decade, more than a
dozen states have rolled back mandatory drug sentences, according to
Families Against Mandatory Minimums. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake