Last Updated May 5, 2004

Faced with gross racial disparities in their criminal justice system and budget-breaking prison expenses, a coalition of civil rights leaders and fiscal conservatives passed far-reaching drug sentencing reform in June 2001. The legislation, sponsored by members of the Louisiana Black Caucus, overturned many draconian mandatory minimums passed in 1996, and is expected to save Louisiana $60 million a year in reduced prison costs.

Louisiana's notoriously severe drug laws were largely responsible for the state’s past distinction of holding the highest incarceration rate in the country. One-third of all Louisiana state inmates were non-violent drug offenders, many of them sentenced to harsh sentences for minor offenses. Harsh drug laws have exacerbated racial disparities in Louisiana's criminal justice system. While African-Americans make up only one-third of the state's population, they made up three-fourths of the state's prison population before sentencing reform.