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MA: Rethinking Drug-Free School Zones Gov. Patrick proposes changing a policy critics say is unfair and ineffective.

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

Rethinking Drug-Free School Zones Gov. Patrick proposes changing a policy critics say is unfair and ineffective. Thursday, February 10, 2011 By Maureen Turner The only thing new about Gov. Deval Patrick's recent proposal to shrink so-called "drug-free" school zones in Massachusetts is his support. For years, advocates of criminal justice reform have been critical of the school zone law, which carries mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes that take place within 1,000 feet of school property. While the law was passed in the name of public safety and the protection of children, critics say it's so broadly drawn that it's ineffective, and that it unfairly penalizes certain defendants on the basis of where they live. At least some lawmakers have been sympathetic to those arguments, including members of the Legislature's joint Judiciary Committee, which in 2008 approved a bill that would have addressed some of the criticisms...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on February 13, 2011 (boomark / email).