Pushing bad drug-crime policy
"Hey kid, wanna buy some crack?"
The image of drug pushers preying on children as they walked home from school no doubt helped convince legislatures all over the country to pass "drug-free zone" laws. Alabama lawmakers took the idea to a national extreme, extending drug-free zones to three miles around every school, college and public housing community. Alabama’s law mandates an added five years in prison for those convicted of selling drugs within a drug-free zone.
Even though the economy has picked up, stubborn gaps between blacks and whites remain _ a reality highlighted by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, the National Urban League reports in a new study.
Drug-Free School Zone Laws Questioned
NEW YORK (AP) - In reaction to the crack epidemic of the 1980s, laws creating drug-free zones around schools spread nationwide. Now, hard questions are being raised - by legislators, activists, even law enforcement officials - about the fairness and effectiveness of those laws.
Report Links Areas to Racial Disparities in Convictions, Sentences
During the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s, dozens of states drew wide circles around schools and called them "drug-free zones" to keep dealers away from children. But a national report released yesterday said the zones have failed to achieve that goal.
Study fuels debate on drug-free zones
Drug-free school zones, which stiffen penalties for drug crimes committed within their boundaries, don’t discourage drug dealing around the buildings and are unfair to minorities, a report released today says.
‘We are workers, not terrorists’
TRENTON--Railing against a congressional proposal to make illegal immigration a felony, more than 1,200 immigrant-rights advocates gathered outside the New Jersey State House yesterday to push for easing the path to U.S. citizenship.
One Group Urges Rehab Instead Of Incarceration
"The state locks up 5,000 people for drug offenses. Many of those people do not have to be in prison," said Jason Ziedenberg.
That’s why the Justice Policy Institute says it’s supporting a bill that would keep non-violent drug offenders out of jail and give judges the option of putting them in a treatment program. Currently under the law, judges are forced to give drug offenders a prison sentence.
Most-troubled kids languish in youth jails In Md., backlog of juveniles awaiting placement builds
Maryland’s juvenile jails are housing kids who aren’t supposed to be there - dozens of young offenders with severe mental or emotional problems waiting for state officials to find them a bed in a residential treatment program.
Rally seeks vote for more ex-offenders Additional Md. funds sought for drug treatment
Justice Maryland, a coalition of advocates for ex-offenders, rallied in frigid temperatures in front of the State House, calling on legislators to restore voting rights to felons who have completed their sentences and pleading for Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. to earmark $50 million in his budget for drug treatment funding.
Economic justice This area remains a battleground in the fight for equality
Before this day — the observance of the 77th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — is out, most people will have heard more than a few references to the civil rights giant's powerful 1963 I Have a Dream speech.
Street Gangs Invade Washington as Warriors for Peace
Members and former members of Latino street gangs will gather early next month in Washington, D.C., for a meeting most people would consider very un-ganglike.
EDITORIAL: Drugs and Racial Discrimination
The mandatory sentencing laws that have swept this country since the 70's have clearly done more harm than good. The inmate population has skyrocketed, driving prison costs to bankrupting levels, while having no impact at all on the drug problem. By taking away judicial discretion, the laws have led the country to write off first-time offenders who might have deserved second chances and to imprison addicts who could otherwise have been effectively and less expensively handled through treatment programs.
Capital punishment timeout advances
New Jersey is on the brink of becoming the first state in the nation to enact a law mandating a moratorium on its death penalty. The Assembly yesterday gave final legislative approval to a bill that bans executions for a year to allow a commission to study the issue. Illinois is now the only state with a moratorium on executing death row inmates, but that ban was instituted by executive order in 2000 by then-Gov. George Ryan.
Low-level, nonviolent drug offenders in Maryland are often imprisoned when they would be better off in treatment, and they are often locked up for longer periods than those who commit more violent crimes. Such disparities are costly - to the state and to the offenders - and ought to be addressed more aggressively by the state's Commission on Criminal Sentencing Policy, which meets today.
Offensive Treatment Despite Efforts to Help Ease Former Prisoners’ Re-Entry to Society, This Year’s Justice Monday Shows There’s Still Work to be Done
Over the next couple of weeks criminal-justice activists across the state will be gearing up for Justice Monday, an annual rally, scheduled for Jan. 16, to draw lawmakers’ attention to protecting the rights of former inmates. This year the rally, which is spearheaded by the criminal-justice advocacy group Justice Maryland, will focus on increasing drug-treatment resources in the state and reinstating voting rights for ex-offenders whose felony convictions have been rescinded. Both are worthy goals, but for many ex-offenders, especially in Baltimore City, to which thousands of former prisoners return each year, it’s a struggle just to meet the most basic life needs.
Colorado's prison space to run out this year Inmate count rising, lawmakers told
Colorado has already run out of prison space for its most dangerous inmates and will run out of room for any new prisoners later this year.
NO DOUBT, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley rues the day when, as a candidate for office, he pledged to reduce the number of murders in the city to 150 annually. Instead, Baltimore's murder rate has remained stubbornly high -- it has not dipped below 250 since Mr. O'Malley took office in 1999 -- and this year the numbers attest again to the ongoing bloodbath. "Charm City," as its marketers call it, has been at or near the top of the list of the nation's most lethal big cities for years. It will retain that unenviable status in 2005, a year in which 269 people were killed on Baltimore's streets.
By the latest count, more than 250,000 Marylanders are in need of substance-abuse treatment. Even in Montgomery County, considered the state's wealthiest county, the treatment gap is great. Yet despite population growth, state funding for treatment has declined.