Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Criminal Law

: The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

MA: New study on inequities of school zone sentencing in Springfield released

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

"A new study by the Easthampton-based Prison Policy Initiative concludes the law places poor, black and Hispanic populations at risk of harsher penalties simply because of where they live. The initiative is a national organization which mapped the impact of so-called "sentencing enhancement zones" in Hampden County in a study of the law." Executive Director Peter J. Wagner, co-author of the report with Aleks W. Kajstura, said the law is used more frequently - 2½ times the state average - in Hampden County than any other county in the state. The patterns of conviction show the law "has more effectively created a two-tiered system of drug sentencing," the report concluded. Drug free zones facing review Saturday, July 26, 2008 Springfield Republican By JO-ANN MORIARTY In 1989, Massachusetts moved aggressively to protect its schoolchildren from being preyed upon by drug dealers, enacting a law that requires a mandatory minimum sentence of two years for anyone convicted of selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a school...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on July 26, 2008 (boomark / email).