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Newsbrief:
Delaware
Cuts
Sentences
for
Some
Drug
Crimes
7/3/03
Delaware last week joined
the growing list of states that have begun to trim sentences for drug offenses.
On June 26, the Delaware Senate passed House Bill 210, which will reduce
mandatory minimum sentences for cocaine sales and increase the amount of
weight required to sustain a trafficking charge. The Delaware House
had earlier passed the bill, and the Dover News-Journal reported that Gov.
Ruth Ann Minner has said she will sign the bill.
The move came as legislators
confronted an empty treasury and a ravenous prison budget, which had jumped
from $66 million in 1990 to $179 million in 2002 as the state struggled
to pay for the results of its resort to tougher drug laws and mandatory
minimum sentencing schemes. Since 1990, Delaware's prison population
has increased by more than 75%, driven precisely by that drug war legislation.
And while the state spent an additional $186 million for new prison construction
the last five years, the Department of Corrections had warned it would
soon have to pay for more if current sentencing trends continued.
The successful legislation
was negotiated among the state Attorney General's office, the Sentencing
Accountability Commission, and Stand Up for What's Right and Just, a citizen
group led by former Republican Gov. Russell Peterson (http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/222/delawarestatehouse.shtml).
And the bill itself reflects those competing agendas. It increases sentences for some violent
crimes and some violent crimes committed by juveniles at the same time
it reduces some drug sentences. Under the bill, the mandatory minimum
sentence for cocaine trafficking will drop from three years to two, and
the amount of cocaine needed to trigger a trafficking charge is doubled,
from five grams to ten. It also includes a provision allowing judges
to sentence drug offenders to spend the last six months of their sentences
at low-security drug treatment facilities within the Department of Corrections.
-- END --
|
Issue #294, 7/3/03
Editorial: Not Just in Texas |
US Appeals Court Kills DEA Interpretive Rule Banning Hemp Foods, But More Battles Remain |
British Cannabis Reform Delayed, Revised to Allow Arrests After Cops Complain |
Canada Approves Safe Injection Site for Vancouver |
Newsbrief: US Suspends Military Aid to Colombia, Others in International Criminal Court Scrap |
Newsbrief: Colombian Court Orders Fumigation Halt -- US, Colombia Say No Way |
Newsbrief: "No Legalization," Says Mexico Anti-Drug Official |
Newsbrief: Another Pain Doc in the Drug War's Sights |
Newsbrief: American Nurses Association Endorses Access to Medical Marijuana |
Newsbrief: Connecticut Lawmakers Call for Sentencing Reform |
Newsbrief: Delaware Cuts Sentences for Some Drug Crimes |
Newsbrief: Poll Finds California Latinos Oppose Jailing Low-Level Drug Offenders |
Bill Maher Benefit Event Monday Night, 7/7, Los Angeles |
The Reformer's Calendar
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