Judge criticizes school-zone sentencing

More common sense from the bench in Massachusetts. Chief justice Judge Robert A. Mulligan said yesterday that "90 percent of the people who receive the mandatory sentences for possessing drugs within 1,000 feet of the school are minorities." As the good judge notes, "there are few areas in any Massachusetts cities that are not within 1,000 feet of a school." It's simple logic. Those who live in the inner cities are largely minorities.

"The purpose behind school zones is to keep drugs away from schools and that's a legitimate purpose," Mulligan said. "But school doesn't have to be in session, it can be at night, it can be during the summer. So it doesn't really achieve its goals."

The cumulative effect, Mulligan said, is that "it really increases skepticism in the fairness of the system."

The DA of course denies that the law is racist and claims drug dealers are equally punished. He doesn't explain of course how that happens to result in the large majority of drug offenders in jail being black men.