In Connecticut, current law marks 1,500 feet around a school as a zone of enhanced penalties for drug offenses. School zones were initially conceived as a way to protect children from drug activity, but 88 percent of arrests for drug crimes in school zones in Connecticut happen during the hours when school is not in session. In addition, school zones have not had a measurable deterrent effect.

To understand the impact of these laws more broadly, DPA commissioned the first-ever national study of so-called "drug-free" school zone laws across the country.

The zones have created serious problems for urban communities by casting such a wide net. The dense population of cities means that schools are closer together than they would be in suburban or rural areas, and the "drug-free" zone designation applies not only to schools but to parks and public housing developments. This means that almost the entire Connecticut cities of Bridgeport, Waterbury, Hartford, and New Haven are "drug-free" zones with stiffer penalties for drug-related crimes, effectively erasing any distinction between school zones and non-school zones.

The blanketing of these cities with school zone penalties has had a particularly strong impact on communities of color, because the cities have higher Black and Hispanic populations than suburban and rural areas. The reform bill, HB 5780, would help to ease this impact by creating a 200 foot boundary around schools and clearly posting signs around schools and child care centers that mark the drug free school zones.

The Safer Schools bill is about promoting effective policies that will keep our children and communities safe. It’s about addressing the extraordinary racism endemic in the war on drugs.

The effort to make safer schools by addressing ineffective drug policies is spreading across the country. In New Jersey, a recent report by the New Jersey Commission to Review Criminal Sentencing recommended reducing the school zones from 1000 to 200 feet and increasing the criminal penalty in the 200 foot zone from a third degree to a second degree offense. DPA is also working in New Jersey to pass a bill based on the Commission’s recommendations.