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August 04, 2007
IL: State to review drug 'safe zones'
Chicago Tribune
State to review drug 'safe zones'
By Megan Twohey | Tribune staff reporter
August 3, 2007
State legislators moved Thursday to review drug-free "safe zone" laws after a Tribune article detailed the disproportionate effects of drug laws on offenders of different races.
A bill approved by a 53-45 vote in the General Assembly would create a Legislative Task Force on Drug Free Zones to study state laws on safe zones and recommend whether they should be amended. The legislation, which now goes to the Senate, would require the task force to report to the governor and state lawmakers by November.
Also on Thursday, Rev. Jesse Jackson Jr. called on Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan and members of Congress to hold hearings on the racial discrepancies in drug law enforcement and punishment.
"Madigan should take the lead," Jackson said at a news conference at Rainbow/PUSH headquarters. He called for the elimination of "safe zone" laws, which increase penalties for drug sales near schools, churches and other public places and blanket many densely populated minority neighborhoods.
"Now that the information is there to act on, we need a remedy," Jackson said.
Blacks make up 13 percent of the nation's illicit drug users, but they constitute 32 percent of those arrested for drug violations and 53 percent of those incarcerated in state prisons for drug crimes, according to federal data.
In Illinois, an estimated 14 percent of drug users are black, but 65 percent of those arrested for drug offenses are black. Sixty-six percent of inmates who are in Illinois prisons for drug offenses are black.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-jacksonaug03,1,5685586.story?ct
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Posted by lois at August 4, 2007 01:22 PM