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New ACLU report assails racial skew in drug sentencing in Mississippi

By Douglas A. Berman

As detailed in this AP article, the "American Civil Liberties Union has released a report calling on Mississippi to revamp sentencing laws the group says disproportionately impose harsher penalties on drug offenders who are black, and fuel a high incarceration rate."  Here is more: The report, ?Numbers Game: The Vicious Cycle of Incarceration in Mississippi?s Criminal Justice System,? focused on the state?s mandatory minimum sentencing laws, the use of informants and the use of federal crime-fighting funding. Nsombi Lambright, ACLU Mississippi executive director, left copies of the report with key lawmakers Monday in hopes of inspiring future legislation. ?We?d also like to see a state funded indigent defense system established. Most of those serving long prison sentences were represented by public defenders who were not prepared for their cases and that leads to more racial disparity,? Lambright said...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on March 31, 2011 (boomark / email).