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The Drug Policy Alliance has launched the New Solutions Campaign in New Jersey to advocate for fair and effective criminal sentencing and stronger families and communities. The Campaign's first goal was to repeal New Jersey’s harsh mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. These harsh sentences tear apart families and communities and waste taxpayer money.

Over the last twenty years, New Jersey’s prison population has grown at an unprecedented rate. The engine driving this growth has been the mass incarceration of nonviolent drug offenders and the imposition of mandatory minimum sentences.

Since the passage of the Comprehensive Drug Reform Act of 1986, which ushered in a regime of harsh mandatory minimum sentences, the proportion of the prison population incarcerated for nonviolent drug offenses has risen from 11 percent to 29 percent-an almost three-fold increase. One of the most unfair and ineffective of these laws is the infamous drug-free zone law. We worked hard to change this unfair and ineffective law by supporting reform legislation - Senate Bill 1866 and Assembly Bill 2762. Assembly Bill 2762 passed the Assembly in June 2008, and Senate Bill 1866 passed the Senate in December 2009. This important legislation was signed by Governor Jon S. Corzine on January 12, 2010.

This ineffective and unfair use of mass incarceration has had huge human and economic costs. Spending for incarceration and corrections has far outstripped that of many other critical budget areas. New Jersey spends more than $46,000 per inmate annually and about $331 million a year just to incarcerate nonviolent drug offenders—more than 17 other states spend on their entire corrections budgets. During the 1980s and 1990s, corrections spending in New Jersey rose at three times the rate of spending on higher education.

But the direct costs of incarceration tell only part of the story of the economic burden placed on New Jersey by the current system. In addition to the direct costs of incarcerating nonviolent drug offenders, New Jersey also incurs substantial indirect and hidden costs by incarcerating nonviolent drug offenders. To get a complete understanding of the costs of incarceration for New Jersey, costs such as lost wages while incarcerated, lost lifetime wages, and lost taxable income must be calculated. A report issued by Drug Policy Alliance in May of 2008 calculates the billions of dollars in hidden costs tied to New Jersey’s out-of-control prison growth.

At a time when New Jersey is facing huge budget deficits and slashing critical programs and services, the costs of New Jersey’s out-of-control prison growth must be addressed. Repealing mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses would untie the hands of New Jersey court, corrections and criminal justice professionals to craft individualized sentences and implement effective and cost-saving policies.

DPA is working hard in New Jersey to build our support coalition, educate the public and legislators about mandatory minimums, and advocate for the repeal of mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. Together we can make a difference!