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NJ legislators fear going "soft" on drug offenders after going "soft" on aggravated murderers

By Douglas A. Berman

New Jersey has made news for sentencing reform in recent years by being the first state in the modern death penalty era to legislatively abolish capital punishment for aggravated murder. But, as highlighted by this local piece, headlined "NJ maintains its strict drug sentences despite changes elsewhere," there are other notable stories of sentencing reform in the Garden State: Darius Bolden [who has been imprisoned for three years for possessing drugs near a school] is one of 5,596 state prison inmates -- about 20 percent of New Jersey's total -- serving a mandatory minimum sentence for a drug offense. Such laws are being loosened across the nation as critics contend decades of strict sentencing requirements for drug offenses clog prisons, unfairly target minorities and don't prevent crime...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on June 02, 2009 (boomark / email).