REFORMERS ASSAIL N.J. DRUG LAWS

NEWARK - New Jersey leads the nation in the proportion of prison
inmates jailed for non-violent drug offenses, as a result of punitive,
inflexible laws that are burdensome to taxpayers and ineffective in
curbing drug abuse, a reform group says.

The Washington-based Drug Policy Alliance said, in a report to be
released today, that 36 percent of New Jersey's 28,000 prison inmates
are serving sentences for drug crimes, compared with the national
average of 20 percent. The group quoted figures from the New Jersey
state Department of Corrections as of June 2002.

"I think it's a combination of having tough and inflexible laws," said
Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the alliance, which favors
treatment programs, rather than prison, for non-violent offenders.

Nadelmann said New Jersey's drug sentencing laws were last amended in
1986.

One factor cited was New Jersey's law requiring that convicts serve 85
percent of their sentences, regardless of the nature of their crime or
their behavior behind bars.

The alliance estimated that the state's drug-related inmate population
costs $266 million a year, more than what a third of all states spend
on their entire prison populations.