State commission votes to shorten drug prison sentences

Shortening drug dealers' suggested sentences could reduce a discrepancy between how judges punish them in greater Minnesota and urban areas, a state Supreme Court justice says.

A proposal offered by Justice Christopher Dietzen, chairman of the Sentencing Guidelines Commission, won a 7-3 vote Wednesday to shorten prison sentences for the two most serious categories of drug offenses beginning Aug. 1 unless state lawmakers veto it.

It came over the objections from police officers, prosecutors and members of the public.

"It is very unfortunate that the SGC took the position they did over the objection of prosecutors, law enforcement and the public at large member that all serve on the SGC," said Wadena County Attorney Kyra Ladd. "The concern about all of this is that non-violent drug offenders who are motivated by addiction are treated the same as dangerous offenders (sellers of controlled substances) who are motivated by greed."

It was the hope of the Minnesota County Attorney's Association that the SGC would seek to ensure violent, dangerous and entrepreneurial drug offenders would receive the most serious penalties - the new guidelines are not geared to achieve this goal, Ladd said. Further, it was hoped that less serious, non-violent, illegal drug activity (primarily motivated by addiction) would have the opportunity to address underlying addictions in non-prison settings and again, the new guidelines are not geared to achieve this goal as it serves to treat the addict and the drug dealer the same for consequences, she said.

In addition, Ladd said the change in the guidelines does nothing to ensure necessary funding at the local level for drug courts, treatment programming, supervision for the increased probationers and other related community based services that are desperately needed for dangerous and non-dangerous offenders.

"If the guidelines are going to rely less on prison consequences for the serious offenders and more on community based services the question is 'who' is going to do this work and 'how' is this going to be funded?" Ladd said. "For Wadena County, this means more unfunded mandates to deal with the ever increasing volume of drug offenders - both dangerous/violent and non-violent alike."

"Aside from all the various community based programming that will be needed (and we already have a shortage of these services locally), there will also be a gap in resources needed to support supervision and monitoring of these individuals - the stark reality is that we will have more drug dealers and addicts in our communities," Ladd said.

First-time dealers and addicts who sell to support their habits are the ones especially targeted for lighter sentences.

Dietzen said the proposal does not really shorten drug dealers' time in prison, it just reflects what judges already are doing, which often is to sentence drug dealers to shorter terms than state guidelines suggest.

Hennepin County prosecutors deal with far more drug dealers than smaller counties, which may affect sentences. Dietzen said prosecutors there have told him they often agree to shorter sentences to settle a case or offer less prison time to get an offender to testify against a bigger dealer.

"The concern was, there was this geographic disparity," Dietzen said.

Isanti County Attorney Jeffrey Edblad, a commission member, opposed the new sentence guidelines along with Ladd. "I'm not convinced that lowering the sentencing for drug cases is going to do anything to change discrepancies."

Judges who have departed from existing guidelines of 86-month sentences for first-degree drug offenders will, under the new guidelines, work from the new 65-month standard, Edblad told Forum News Service.

St. Paul Police Sgt. Paul Ford said longer sentences are needed to protect the public.

"We are sending a clear message that we are going to give a break to drug dealers," Ford said.

He told commissioners who support the changes: "You are taking us down the path of not locking up people for crimes when they should be."

Drug dealers, he said, "are increasingly not from the United States," and they are not addicts and often have no criminal history.

Dealers need substantial prison time, Edblad and Ford said, because they are becoming more professional.

"Instead of 10 years ago where you would have folks in the old mobile home on the back 40 manufacturing methamphetamine, now you have sophisticated distribution networks and have methamphetamine coming in from Mexico," Edblad said.

The new sentence guidelines take effect Aug. 1 unless the Legislature blocks them, which House and Senate public safety leaders of both parties say is unlikely.

This report contains information from Forum News Service reporter Don Davis.