nightwitch

Punishment for drug sales within 1,000 feet of schools has unintended consequences
By Holly Herman
Reading Eagle

A Berks County judge called for immediate action from legislators to repeal a law allowing prosecutors to seek mandatory sentences for drug dealers selling within 1,000 feet of a school.

"We cannot continue to fill up the prisons with nonviolent people who sell marijuana," Judge Linda K.M. Ludgate said. "We are in a state budget crisis. This law no longer makes sense."

Ludgate, head of criminal court, was on a Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing advisory committee that concluded the law must be repealed.

The panel's report was presented to the House Judiciary Committee.

"We cannot wait any longer for this law to be repealed," said Ludgate, also a member of the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing. "It's no longer practical. The legislators must decide whether they want to fill up prisons with murderers and rapists or people selling marijuana."

The numbers show Berks County prosecutors imposed mandatory sentences for 186 cases, or 63 percent, of the 294 mandatory-sentence cases in 2008.

The law requires judges to impose mandatory sentences when requested by prosecutors.

Prosecutors statewide obtained mandatory sentences in 314 drug-zone cases, or 18 percent of the 1,732 mandatory sentences handed down in 2008.

The report concluded the 1997 drug-free school zone is clogging up prisons, not shielding children from drugs.

"There is no relationship between the school zone and selling drugs to kids," said Mark Bergstrom, executive director of the Pennsylvania Commission.

"If you are selling drugs to another person at 2 in the morning, and there are no kids out, you still face a mandatory sentence," he said. "This is not the intention of the law."

The law allows prosecutors to require a sentence of two to four years in state prison for anyone selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a school - including day care centers, colleges, playgrounds and religious schools.

About 20 percent of the 49,307 state prison inmates are there for drug offenses.

District Attorney John T. Adams said prosecutors use the mandatory sentence as a negotiating tool.

"We are continuing to evaluate the cases on a case-by-case basis," Adams said. "I do expect we will scrutinize cases even closer."

Adams said prosecutors are using treatment programs as an alternative in appropriate cases.

First Assistant District Attorney M. Theresa Johnson reviews cases to determine if mandatory sentences can be lifted.

"We don't want our children walking through dangerous drug areas in the city," Johnson said. "The mandatory sentences give us the ability to use our discretion."

Ludgate said such efforts by the DA's office are helping.

"There would be even more cases if they used the mandatory in every case," she said.

Ludgate said another law allows mandatory sentences when drugs are sold to minors, but that law is rarely used.

Judge James M. Bucci said mandatory sentencing can be dangerous for counties with overzealous prosecutors.

Bucci said Adams is fair and does not abuse the privilege.

"The mandatory sentences tie the hands of the judge," he said. "The judge is in the best position to make a decision on a case-by-case basis."

Reading defense attorney Lawrence Hracho said the drug-free school zone measure is used inappropriately.

"At Penn State, the entire university is in a school zone," he said. "A student could get a mandatory sentence of two years for selling two joints. The law is being used too broadly."

William C. Bispels Jr., a Reading defense attorney, said the mandatory sentence is used all over Reading because the entire city falls within various school zones.

"There is an endless supply of people selling drugs, and we can't lock them all up," Bispels said.

Contact Holly Herman: 610-478-6291 or hherman@readingeagle.com.