JUDGES MAY BE ABLE TO WAIVE ENHANCED DRUG SENTENCES

TRENTON -- State judges are on the verge of getting back the
authority to waive enhanced prison sentences now required for selling
drugs within 1,000 feet of a school under legislation approved
Thursday and sent to Gov. Jon S. Corzine.

The bill also could free some nonviolent offenders from state prisons.

Backers of the change, including state and county prosecutors, say
the often three-year mandatory prison term now required should be
changed because offenders in prison learn to become hardened
criminals when drug treatment could be more effective. They also note
that it costs nearly $40,000 a year to house a prison inmate, while
parole, probation and drug treatment programs cost significantly less.

Nearly one in five state inmates are serving mandatory-minimum drug
sentences. A state commission has concluded the law is unfair because
far more area in cities falls within a school zone than in rural areas.

"At one time, these types of mandatory minimum laws were considered
untouchable," said Roseanne Scotti, director of Drug Policy Alliance
New Jersey. "But there is a growing public backlash against these
failed policies and a growing willingness on the part of elected
officials to address the mistakes of the past."

The Assembly voted 46-30 for the bill, which the Senate passed 25-11
last month. Votes fell mostly along party lines, with Democrats in
favor and Republicans opposed.

The Assembly in June 2008 had passed a version of the bill, 49-27,
that didn't include a section added in November letting state inmates
now serving mandatory-minimum terms to appeal to judges for their release.

Such a change would bring the potential to save the state significant
amounts of money for prison operations. It costs the state around
$39,000 a year to house a prison inmate, compared with costs of
around $10,000 a year for people on parole or probation.

The school-zone law was enacted in 1987. Since then, the portion of
the prison population locked up for drug crimes has grown from 11
percent to 29 percent. Department of Corrections data indicate that
some 4,800 inmates -- nearly 19 percent of the prison population --
are serving mandatory minimum drug terms, some for selling less than
an ounce of cocaine or heroin.

Under the bill, a judge could waive or reduce the mandatory minimums,
taking into account a defendant's prior criminal record, the
seriousness of the offense, whether school was in session and whether
children were or reasonably could have been nearby.

Mandatory minimums could not be trimmed for offenses that took place
on school property, including school buses, or if the defendant
threatened violence or had a firearm in his or her possession.

The change would allow judges to sentence defendants to the state's
drug-court program, an intervention and treatment effort designed to
correct behavior without sending nonviolent drug offenders to jail
and exposing them to prison life.