https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/381/iowalwv.shtml

After an 18-month study of prison and sentencing policy in Iowa, that state's chapter of the nonpartisan national civic organization, the League of Women Voters (LWV), has called for serious sentencing reform, citing a huge increase in the number of drug offenders jailed in the Hawkeye State since 1990. Other local LWV organizations have also proven to be friends of drug reform, most notably in Seattle and the state of Texas.

In a letter to the Iowa legislature, Iowa LWV sentencing and corrections committee member Johnnie Hammond and Iowa LWV president Pat Jensen put lawmakers on notice that the group is seeking dramatic changes in a state criminal justice system that has seen the number of prisoners nearly double in 10 years, from 4,077 in 1991 to 8,108 in 2001. Much of the surge in prisoners is a result of drug law enforcement, the pair noted. The number of drug prisoners had tripled in that 10-year period, with the number imprisoned for methamphetamine -- the heartland's demon drug du jour -- increasing by a whopping 662% in less than a decade, from about 100 per year in 1995 to about 800 per year in 2003. That growth in drug prisoners was "of particular concern," the Iowa LWV told legislators.

In January, the pair noted, the Iowa LWV adopted a position on criminal justice issues that criticized mandatory minimum sentences as having "an adverse impact" on the justice system and supporting an indeterminate sentencing structure. Judges, the corrections department, and the parole board need "greater flexibility," the organization concluded. It also called for "proportionality" in sentencing.

"We found that mandatory prison sentences often denied the judicial system the ability to look at offenders' risk assessment and impose probation or a shorter term of incarceration," wrote Hammond and Jensen. "Iowa's budget is threatened with being swallowed up by Department of Corrections costs."

	Please make a generous donation to support Drug War Chronicle in 2007!

PERMISSION to reprint or redistribute any or all of the contents of Drug War Chronicle (formerly The Week Online with DRCNet is hereby granted. We ask that any use of these materials include proper credit and, where appropriate, a link to one or more of our web sites. If your publication customarily pays for publication, DRCNet requests checks payable to the organization. If your publication does not pay for materials, you are free to use the materials gratis. In all cases, we request notification for our records, including physical copies where material has appeared in print. Contact: StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network, P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 293-8340 (voice), (202) 293-8344 (fax), e-mail [email protected]. Thank you.

Articles of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of the DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.

Out from the Shadows HEA Drug Provision Drug War Chronicle Perry Fund DRCNet en Español Speakeasy Blogs About Us Home Why Legalization? NJ Racial Profiling Archive Subscribe Donate DRCNet em Português Latest News Drug Library Search special friends links: SSDP - Flex Your Rights - IAL - Drug War Facts StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet) 1623 Connecticut Ave., NW, 3rd Floor, Washington DC 20009 Phone (202) 293-8340 Fax (202) 293-8344 [email protected]