Drug Free Zone Target Blacks Unfairly -- Florida

The War on Drugs has of course always been the War on the Poor, and as our prison population
continues to climb (42,000 more this year than last year) it's obvious that we have been lazy about creating better policy. It's easier to lock people up then to get them the help that they need. Thanks to Doug Berman over at Sentencing Law and Policy for the h/t.

It is a war that has seen years of casualties with no end in sight; the number of people imprisoned for drug-related crimes has only climbed each year since 1982. And while police say the heightened penalties for selling drugs in drug-free zones fortify their position, critics say the size and number of these zones have only increased the toll with a disproportionate impact on black offenders.

"The crimes aren't being displaced because there's nowhere to displace them to. There's no incentive for drug dealers to move," said Ben Barlyn, a New Jersey deputy attorney general who heads a state commission that in 2004 examined the impact of drug-free zones in that state.

Those examining the impact of drug laws have pointed to other factors leading to disproportionate numbers of blacks serving time for drug crimes, including higher penalties for crack cocaine than powder cocaine, and for street narcotics than unauthorized prescription drugs. Racial profiling also has been cited as contributing to racially disparate incarceration rates.

While policy analysts have found all of these factors have led to longer prison sentences for black offenders and distrust of law enforcement in black communities, they cite one more problem with 1,000-foot zones.

The zones, they say, have proven to be a losing strategy in the war on drugs.

Still, Florida lawmakers have continued to expand the zones and add more.

A Palm Beach Post study of the law's effects shows that the zones now blanket Palm Beach County's inner cities and:

• Of 440 people arrested in Palm Beach County last year on "selling within 1,000" charges, 406 - 92 percent - were black;

• Statewide, 80 percent of those charged with selling within 1,000 last year were black;

• Application of the law is inconsistent, with cases dismissed for 16 percent of white defendants and 6.6 percent of black defendants.

• The numbers of people sent to prison on selling within 1,000 charges have climbed steadily in the past 10 years, with black convicts outnumbering whites 12-1.

On Boynton Beach's Martin Luther King Boulevard, two signs warn that this is a "drug-free school zone," while the sign down the block states that this is a "drug-free park zone."

Alone, either sign means that people caught selling drugs here can face more serious charges and more prison time than drug sellers elsewhere. Together, the signs mean two sets of raised charges and penalties. And, although no sign says so, churches in the neighborhood and the convenience store across the street mean dealers could face four criminal charges for one drug transaction.

The same four crimes can also be charged to residents of this street caught with saleable amounts of drugs in their homes.

That is because people living on this street live within the overlapping circumferences of four invisible thousand-foot circles.Read the Article Here