Zone defense: drug-free school zones were supposed to keep dealers away from kids. But what happens when the zones engulf whole cities?

AuthorGold, Jack

IN THE SPRING OF 1997, DEMATRIC YOUNG was living at the Sunset Motel just off Highway 84 in North Lubbock, Texas. The Sunset is run-down place in a mainly Hispanic neighborhood and home to a constantly shifting roster of semi-permanent guests-low income, down-on-their-luck types, often a step away from the homeless shelter. From his room there, on two occasions, Young sold an undercover narcotics agent somewhere between two and four grams--around $400 worth--of cocaine. The normal sentence in the state of Texas for such a crime would have been around ten years. But Young discovered that he would be facing a much harsher sentence, because, unbeknown to him, his motel room was located in a "drug-free school zone."

According to Texas state law, everywhere within 1,000 feet of a school constitutes a "drug-free zone." Anyone convicted of selling or possessing drugs within such a zone is subject to an enhanced sentence--a five-year mandatory minimum over and above the sentence imposed for the original offense. Unfortunately for Young, the Sunset was within 1,000 feet of Cavazos Junior High School. He was never accused of selling drugs to children. Nor did he ever set foot inside the Cavazos schoolyard. But under the Texas drug-free school zone law, neither of these facts is relevant.

Texas law also requires that Young be tried separately for each charge, once for possession of cocaine and additionally for sales of cocaine within a drug free school zone. And it requires that any sentences be served consecutively rather than concurrently. As a result, Young--20 at the time of his arrest--is now serving a 38-year sentence, ineligible for parole until at least 2021. "His life is over," says his lawyer, Bob Huddleston.

There's little reason to expect that the Texas politicians who created the state's drug-free zone laws would have much sympathy for Young, given that the crime he was convicted of corresponds perfectly with the law they wrote. But even the most tough-on-crime legislators might question whether the intention of a law designed to keep drug dealers away from school children is being well served by the imposition of a massive extra penalty on someone who was not selling to kids, who was nowhere near them, and who was essentially operating out of his home.

All together, drug-free zone laws rank among the country's most specious criminal drug statutes. Over the years, states have created so many of these zones, of such immense scope, that they now encompass almost the entirety of some cities, rendering them overwhelmingly ineffective. Yet, drug-free zoning has hardly been inconsequential. It has helped send countless low-level drug offenders in inner cities--most of them minorities like Young, who's black--to prison for much longer terms than those committing the same crimes in the suburbs, where drug-free zones occupy a dramatically smaller fraction of the overall space. At a time when Americans are increasingly questioning the fairness of drug laws that disproportionately affect minorities--as with the vastly higher penalties associated with crack versus powdered cocaine--the drug-free zone regime, though it has the same effect, is not even on the nation's radar screen.

Marking Territory

Drug-free zone criminal statutes originated in the mid-1980s as the crack epidemic hit the country's inner cities. The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 imposed enhanced federal penalties on those convicted of selling drugs near schools and other places occupied by kids. The law was, as it remains, remarkably broad--doubling the maximum punishment for possession or distribution of a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of "a public or private elementary, vocational, or secondary school or a public or private college, junior college, or university, or a playground, or a housing facility owned by a public housing authority, or within 100 feet of a public or private youth center, public swimming pool, or video...

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