N.J. STUDY CITES COSTS OF DRUG SENTENCING

A group said easing laws for nonviolent offenses could save taxpayers
millions.

TRENTON - New Jersey could save millions of dollars by easing sentencing
laws for nonviolent drug offenses, according to a new study by an advocacy
group.

The Drug Policy Alliance, a critic of government drug policies, said
that New Jersey spent $331 million a year jailing nonviolent drug
offenders, and that alternatives to jail in such cases would free more
money for investment in the state's poorest families and
communities.

The study, which used data from 2003, also said the state lost taxable
income by sending nonviolent drug offenders to jail and limiting their
future employment.

"We are creating an entire cast of people who will forever be economic
and labor-force outsiders," said Roseanne Scotti, the alliance's New
Jersey director, at a Trenton news conference.

Scotti said serving a jail sentence reduced a person's earning ability
up to 40 percent.

"It is money that would have gone into the larger New Jersey economy,"
she said.

Instead of jail, she said, nonviolent drug offenders should receive
treatment and supervision.

The group said it would push legislators to eliminate mandatory
sentences for nonviolent drug offenses, starting with a bill that
would let a judge waive mandatory sentences for distributing or
possessing drugs near a school.

An Assembly committee has approved the bill, and Assemblyman Joseph
Cryan (D., Union) predicted the Legislature would pass it by the end
of June.

"The time has come for us to change from throw-away-the-key,
lock-'em-up mandatory minimums," said Cryan, who spoke at the news
conference. "Let's understand that that hasn't worked."

The report calculated that it cost $90 million to incarcerate 1,915
Newark residents who entered the prison system in 2003, and that each
of those residents would lose about $100,000 in lifetime wages because
of a prison record.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who also appeared at the news conference,
said prison records often forced nonviolent drug offenders "to live on
the margins as outcasts" and pushed them back toward drug use.