Connecticut Senate to Vote on Bill Which Would End Racially Disparate Sentencing
Enhanced sentencing for drug offenses committed in “school zone” result in “overkill”
The following article, published in Connecticut’s New Haven Register on 5/5/11 is reprinted here with the permission of the author.
Sentencing is a Place for Savings
By Nicole Porter
In recent years, Connecticut has been a leader in advancing policies to control the prison population without compromising public safety.
As lawmakers continue to address the state’s budget deficit, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s criminal justice proposals demonstrate that careful consideration of sentencing policies can continue to reduce the prison population, save money and target resources for other vital services.
A key initiative to advance these objectives is Senate Bill 952, which would modify a mandatory minimum sentencing provision to limit the number of drug offenses subject to a “school zone” enhancement. Under current law, a drug offense committed within 1,500 feet of a school, daycare center or public housing is subject to a three-year mandatory minimum sentence. Given this broad geographical spread, the mandatory penalties are applied to many offenses that do not involve schoolchildren and in which the drug seller may not even be aware that the transaction occurred in a school zone.
SB952 would narrow the geographical area to 200 feet to avoid such overkill in imposing sentences. The bill has garnered bipartisan support in committee.
SB952 would also reduce racial disparities in sentencing. These result from the fact that people of color disproportionately reside in densely populated urban communities. Thus, a drug offense in these neighborhoods is more likely to be within a school zone than one committed in a rural or suburban neighborhood. According to a legislative analysis, blacks have far higher rates of conviction for drug offenses within school zones than for zone drug offenses elsewhere. Blacks represented 65 percent of people convicted of drug offenses within the restricted zones, compared to 39 percent of those convicted of all drug offenses.
Adoption of this legislation would continue the state’s leadership in efforts to ensure criminal justice policies are effective and fair. For example, Iowa and Connecticut are the only states to institutionalize the use of racial impact statements by establishing a rule allowing legislators to request an analysis of proposed sentencing policy on the prison system and communities of color. That rule continues to be a model for other states looking to address the overrepresentation of racial minorities in state prisons.
Officials report that Connecticut’s prison population has stabilized at 17,700, the lowest in a decade. Correctional administrators anticipate the state could see a further downscaling of the prison population, saving money, if sentencing reforms under consideration are authorized.
Approving SB952 will provide lawmakers with an opportunity to build upon effective public policies enacted in recent years. At a cost of nearly $33,000 per inmate per year, the state overinvests in incarceration, with diminishing returns to the public.
State lawmakers can choose another way. Efforts to downscale the state’s reliance on incarceration can free precious resources needed for education and other services that will benefit communities. Continuing to overinvest in prisons will provide relatively little additional return in public safety when compared with the positive benefits that could be gained through substance abuse treatment, housing, education and jobs in local communities.
Certainly, we want to protect schoolchildren from drug sellers, but we should not do so in a manner that reaches well beyond this objective, and does so in a racially disparate manner. SB952 would allow Connecticut to achieve a greater measure of racial fairness while adopting fiscally responsible and bipartisan approaches to incarceration, including reducing sentences for nonviolent drug offenses.
Nicole Porter is state advocacy coordinator for The Sentencing Project, 1705 DeSalles St. N.W., 8th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20036. Email: nporter@sentencingproject.org.
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