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New Jersey on verge of repealing state's school-zone drug laws

By Douglas A. Berman

Legislative action on criminal sentences often appears to be largely a one-way ratchet, with new laws often pushing punishments up and rarely bringing them down.  However, as detailed in this local report, New Jersey is about the buck the trend through a repeal of its school-zone drug laws.  Here are the details: People arrested for some drug offenses near schools should no longer face mandatory prison sentences, lawmakers decided today. 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 in a statement...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on January 08, 2010 (boomark / email).