JUDGE SAYS MANDATORY SENTENCES HAVE LOPSIDED EFFECT ON MINORITIES

Mandatory sentencing laws, embraced with enthusiasm by the Legislature as
part of an effort to get tough on crime, have helped put a disproportionate
number of minorities behind bars, the administrative director of the courts
told the Senate budget committee yesterday.

Judge Richard J. Williams cited the drug-free school zone law, which
imposes a mandatory three-year prison sentence with no possibility of
parole to anyone who possesses drugs within 1,000 feet of a school. He said
these mandatory sentences have been meted out far more often to people in
urban areas, many of whom are minorities.

"You can't go into some urban areas and find a place that is not within the
school zone," Williams said. "There is a disproportionately larger share of
minorities who are in our penal institutions."

Williams made his comments when Sen. Walter J. Kavanaugh (R-Somerset) asked
whether the judiciary was engaged in "racial profiling" for sending so many
minorities away to prison.

Kavanaugh said the judiciary's statistics on imprisonment reflect the same
sort of racial disparity that has been cited as evidence of racial
profiling by the State Police. Since the state enacted the Comprehensive
Drug Enforcement Act in 1986, Kavanaugh said, those sentenced to prison
have been 64 percent African-American and 18 percent Hispanic. The act
mandates minimum prison sentences for drug offenses.

"That's 82 percent," said Kavanaugh, noting that if a state trooper had
numbers like that, he'd be accused of racial profiling.

Williams said the state's war on drugs has prompted prisons to bulge with
inmates. From 1977 to 2000, the total inmate population increased by 457
percent. The budget for the Department of Corrections ballooned from $92.3
million in 1980 to $845.7 million in 1999, he said.

Williams said minorities would not be so over-represented in prisons if
experimental drug courts were expanded statewide. The specialized courts
divert drug offenders from prison and into highly structured, supervised
treatment programs.

"We need to implement drug court programs statewide if we are to provide
equal protection under the law for all our citizens," Williams told the
committee at a Trenton hearing.

In Camden, Essex, Union, Mercer and Passaic counties, where there are pilot
drug courts, 85 percent of the offenders diverted from prison are
minorities, Williams said.

The judiciary wants to expand drug courts statewide for adult offenders
over the next two years, Williams said. The idea behind the drug court is
to reduce the use of prisons for low-level drug offenders. There are two
bills in the Legislature to fund the drug courts.

If drug courts are established statewide, Williams said they could handle
1,875 offenders, 70 percent of whom would otherwise be headed to state prison.

Kavanaugh, a burly, no-nonsense lawmaker who has never had a reputation for
being soft on crime, said he now regrets supporting certain mandatory
sentencing laws.

"I voted for mandatory sentencing. I think it was the biggest mistake I've
made as a member of the Legislature," said Kavanaugh, who has been a
lawmaker since 1975.

Kavanaugh said he now believes judges should have more discretion because
they see the case firsthand and have more expertise.

"The decision should really be up to the judge," said Kavanaugh.

But he chided Williams for not providing the Legislature with more
information sooner. Williams said members of the judiciary sometimes see
problems but feel compelled to comply with the "will of the Legislature."

"Go back today, write a note, 'Dear Walt, These are the things we think are
wrong' . . . put it in a brown envelope with no return address and send it
to me," Kavanaugh said. "I think we've gone too far in the wrong direction."

Sen. Wayne Bryant (D-Camden) said when it comes to mandatory sentencing
laws, lawmakers have become "absolutely nuts." He said taxpayers are asking
whether spending $32,000 to house an inmate without using treatment
programs is a wise use of resources.

"None of us are talking about putting dangerous people back on the
streets," Bryant said.