New Jersey's levels of racial disparity in imprisonment are among the nation's highest, and the state devotes a larger share of prison beds to people convicted of drug offenses than any other. Justice Strategies has documented the impact of New Jersey's drug-free zone laws and the pioneering efforts of the state's sentencing commission to "right-size" the zones since 2005.
(The Press of Atlantic City — Lynda Cohen — March 24, 2006)
Drug-free zones not only don't protect children, but instead have put a disproportionate number of minorities in jail, according to experts who have been studying the policy.
A national study — spawned by a New Jersey commission's findings — was released Thursday. In it, the Justice Policy Institute found that the zones are too large and therefore do not deter drug sales within school zones and other protected areas.
New Jersey's drug-free zone laws have no deterrent effect on drug sales near schools but instead fuel racial disparity in imprisonment according to New Jersey's Commission to Review Criminal Sentencing and a new report coauthored by policy analysts with Justice Strategies and Justice Policy Institute. Since the state's "school-zone" law took effect, the proportion of blacks admitted to prison for drug convictions has risen four times faster than the proportion of whites.
New Jersey's levels of racial disparity in imprisonment are among the nation's highest, and the state devotes a larger share of prison beds to people convicted of drug offenses than any other. Justice Strategies has documented the impact of New Jersey's drug-free zone laws and the pioneering efforts of the state's sentencing commission to "right-size" the zones since 2005.