New Jersey Criminal Defense Blog

According to a Drug Policy Alliance Network announcement, the New Jersey Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on Senate Bill 1866. Referred to as a “groundbreaking sentencing bill”, it will provide judges the diplomacy to waive mandatory minimum sentences for a number of nonviolent drug offenders if approved. According to the report, many advocates consider support of the bill to be signs of common-sense and practical improvement that would boost fair and effective sentencing while sparing the taxpayer’s wallet.

The director of Drug Policy Alliance New Jersey provided the following statement: “Twenty years ago, New Jersey began implementing harsh mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders. These laws have been a spectacular failure. They have done nothing to decrease drug activity and have filled New Jersey’s prisons with nonviolent drug offenders at great cost to New Jersey taxpayers.”

In encouraging the committee’s willingness to consider Senate bill 1866, the director and many others hope that the new bill will prevent any further exceptional levels of incarceration and huge amounts of taxpayer money spent; both of which resulted from the Comprehensive Drug Reform Act’s initiation in 1986. Based on additional information provided by the Drug Policy Alliance Network, approximately twenty years ago, only 11% of individuals in prison were serving mandatory minimum sentences. Today, about 69% are serving mandatory sentences. Also, in 1987, only 11% of the New Jersey prison populated was incarcerated for drug offenses. Now, 29% of the prison population is incarcerated for nonviolent drug offenses.