Sentencing Policy

News Article The Associated Press March 23, 2006

Drug-Free School Zone Laws Questioned

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.

In New Jersey, Connecticut and Washington state, bills have been proposed to sharply reduce the size of the zones. A former assistant attorney general in Massachusetts reviewed hundreds of drug-free-zone cases, and found that less than 1 percent involved drug sales to youths.

JS Publication January 31, 2006

Treatment Instead of Prisons: A Roadmap for Sentencing and Correctional Policy in Wisconsin

A broad-based movement is building to overhaul Wisconsin's sentencing practices. The Treatment Instead of Prison (TIP) campaign — a dynamic statewide coalition of 24 organizations — has launched a coordinated effort to call attention to the many benefits of using substance abuse treatment as an alternative to incarceration for people charged with low-level, nonviolent offenses.

News Article

Ohio combines sentencing reform and community corrections to rein in prison budget

Ohio provides a remarkable example of policy reforms and investments in community-based alternative programs can yield correctional cost savings. State policymakers have managed to reduce the state's prison population by more than 5,000, allowing closure of two prisons, and saving taxpayers more than $65 million a year.

One Midwestern state provides a remarkable example of how comprehensive policy reforms and substantial investments in community-based alternative programs can, over time, yield huge correctional cost savings. In 1996 Ohio legislators embraced "truth-in-sentencing" when they enacted Senate Bill 2. They abolished parole release and established a system of flat sentences. They also provided a system of sentencing guidance for judges grounded on basic principles which are developed and enforced by appellate review. Read more »

News Article The Montgomery Advertiser November 1, 2005

Groups say prison not addicts' place (AL)

Efforts to divert drug addicts and other nonviolent criminals away from state prisons are gaining momentum months before Alabama's 2006 legislative session.

On Monday, the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance, which advocates the legalization of medical marijuana and policy changes in the way America deals with drug addicts, released "Alabama Prison Crisis: A Justice Strategies Policy Report."

"Substance abuse is driving the prison crisis," said Kevin Pranis, an analyst with Justice Strategies, the New York-based nonprofit group commissioned to do the report.

JS Publication October 31, 2005

Alabama Prison Crisis

Justice Strategies researchers find that nonviolent drug offenses drive explosive prison population growth

Alabama's prisons are dangerously overcrowded and disastrously under-funded. Facilities designed for 13,500 prisoners hold more than 27,000, and Alabama's largest prisons are crammed to three times their design capacity. State corrections officials struggle daily to manage a system characterized by the nation's lowest per-prisoner expenditures and highest ratio of prisoners to guards, along with a death rate that far exceeds the norm.

Alabama's prison crisis is a consequence of explosive prison population growth. While the state's resident population grew by less than 20 percent during the past quarter-century, the prison population more than quadrupled, surpassing 27,000 prisoners in July 2005. Alabama's incarceration rate, which barely exceeded the national average in 1980, now ranks among the top five. African-Americans — who make up just a quarter of Alabama residents but 60 percent of state prisoners — have been hit hard by prison population growth, as have women whose share of the population has increased rapidly.

JS Publication September 13, 2005

Unfinished Business: How Sentencing Guidelines Reform Can Further Efforts to Reduce Substance Abuse in Maryland

Despite recent efforts in Maryland to expand access to treatment for addicts caught up in the criminal justice system, the bulk of the state resources available for addressing the problem remain "locked up" in the prison system. The nearly 5,000 drug prisoners incarcerated in Maryland (1 in 5 state prisoners) represent a $100 million-a-year "investment" in a failed approach to combating addiction.

In 2004, Governor Robert Ehrlich and state legislature enacted an historic piece of legislation designed to redirect addicts from prisons and jails into substance abuse treatment by expanding the options available to prosecutors, judges and the Parole Commission. That legislation is only as good as the funding that is available to provide the treatment options for the courts divert people to.

A Justice Strategies analysis of sentencing patterns for drug offenses, which was commissioned by The Campaign for Treatment, Not Incarceration, determined that the state's drug sentencing guidelines are part of the problem. The guidelines, which establish recommended sentence ranges based on the nature of the offense and the defendant's criminal history, promote an outdated "lock 'em-up" response to substance abuse by: Read more »

JS Publication October 1, 2004

From Abu Ghraib to America

Since the infamous photos of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq first came to light, much has been said about the role that the U.S. military and CIA have played in connection with the human rights violations. But reports of similar abuse in the United States are all too common, which suggests that America's dehumanizing prison culture has now been exported elsewhere in the world.

In the October 2004 issue of The Open Society Institute's Ideas for an Open Society, Justice Strategies policy analyst Judith Greene explores how the "cruel but usual methods of control used by many U.S. prison personnel" are reflected in the abuses at Abu Ghraibl. Greene argues that what is ultimately needed is "a thorough overhaul of the harsh sentencing laws and policies that have driven the prison system to this unmanageable scale."

JS Publication June 30, 2004

Did Oregon's Measure 11 work? Other States Achieve Greater Crime Reductions at Lower Cost

Supporters of Ballot Measure 11 claim that the reform has served as a cost-effective crime control strategy. Yet a comparison of crime patterns and incarceration rates in Oregon with patterns in other states shows that remarkable reductions in crime rates have occurred elsewhere without recourse to a huge and costly expansion of prison capacity.

1994 was a seismic year for the US criminal justice system. Congressional enactment of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act spurred many states to stiffen penalties for people convicted of crime. That same year Oregon voters passed Ballot Measure 11, creating sharply increased sentences for nearly two dozen violent offenses.

Many of its supporters argue that Measure 11 has made a substantial contribution to the decrease in Oregon's violent crime rate since 1995, serving as a cost-effective crime control strategy. Yet a comparison of crime patterns and incarceration rates in Oregon with patterns in other key states shows that remarkable reductions in crime rates have occurred elsewhere without recourse to a huge and costly expansion of prison capacity. Moreover, recent research on deterrence and incapacitation does not provide support for the notion that longer sentences reduce crime rates. Read more »

News Article May 12, 2004

Arizona lawmakers join call for sentencing reform

Respected Republican Rep. Bill Konopnicki (R -- Stafford) and Sen. Carolyn Allen (R -- Scottsdale) welcomed the release of a report blaming the growth in incarceration on Arizona's rigid mandatory sentencing laws, and they pledged to support legislation establishing a sentencing commission to study the matter.

"Arizona Prison Crisis: A Call for Smart on Crime Solutions" was Commissioned by Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) and released at a May 11, 2004 press conference. The report provides policymakers with the first detailed look at the state's prison population and the specific laws that fuel the current overcrowding crisis.

Authored by Judith Greene and Kevin Pranis of Justice Strategies, the report paints a portrait of a prison system packed with people convicted of non-violent and low-level offenses, disproportionate numbers of people of color and a rapidly growing population of women. The report outlines comprehensive suggestions for sentencing reform, as well as more immediate steps to reduce overcrowding and save money. Read more »

JS Publication May 11, 2004

Arizona Prison Crisis: A Call for Smart On Crime Solutions

Mandatory sentencing laws fuel overcrowding, fill prisons with substance abusers

With the ninth highest rate of incarceration in the nation, Arizona has become the incarceration capital of the western United States. The rate of prison population growth in 2002 was twice the regional average and the state incarcerates women, Latinos and African Americans at higher rates than its neighbors.

Arizona's high incarceration rate is driven by a rigid mandatory sentencing system that severely restricts judges' discretion in imposing sentences and crowds prisons with non-violent substance abusers. Mandatory and lengthy "enhanced" prison terms are required for a variety of offenses, regardless of the facts in the case or the seriousness of the underlying conduct. Except in cases involving first-time defendants charged with low-level property or drug offenses, the system places all sentencing discretion in the hands of prosecutors. Read more »

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