7/26/08
New study finds that Massachusetts’ school zone law fails to protect children, instead hurts minorities and urban poor
On July 26, 2008, the Prison Policy Initiative in Northampton, MA, released a new study, The Geography of Punishment: How Huge Sentencing Enhancement Zones Harm Communities, Fail to Protect Children. For a copy of the report, go to www.prisonpolicy.org/zones. The study concerns enforcement of the state’s drug-free zone law, which imposes a two-year mandatory minimum sentence for certain drug offenses occurring within 1,000 feet of a school or daycare center. The research focused on Hampden County (the Springfield/Holyoke area).
The report is the first to study the geography of Massachusetts’ sentencing enhancement zone law in both urban and rural areas and to determine whether racial disparities result from its enforcement. Its findings:
- Zones of 1,000 feet are not effective. Such zones, which are unmarked, do not drive drug activity away from children because they are so large and difficult to identify.
- Instead, significant punitive inequalities are inherent in the law’s structure. These inequalities directly translate to greater rates of incarceration for Black, Latino, urban and poor defendants based on where they live -- an “urban effect.”
The Springfield Republican newspaper published a major article on The Geography of Punishment. Almost all the legislators, law enforcement officials and community leaders interviewed for the article support reform of Massachusetts’ school zone law.
For a copy of the article, click here.
For FAMM’s press release, click here.
For FAMM’s analysis of the report, click here.
For FAMM’s “talking points” on school zone reform, click here.