The mandatory sentencing laws in the US have done more harm than good. The inmate population has skyrocketed driving prison costs to bankruptcy with no impact on the drug problem. The laws have led the country to write off first-time offenders.

The laws have also discriminated against minority groups who are singled out for harsher sentences. That issue has come into sharp focus in New Jersey, where a panel of criminal justice officials has recommended that the state revise a law that mandates more severe sentences for people convicted of certain drug crimes committed within 1,000 feet of school property. Offenders living in cities tend to fall under the drug-free-zone laws, not because they peddle drugs to minors, but because they live near schools. Offenders living in suburban and rural areas, tend to fall outside the law, so they receive lighter sentences.

The New Jersey panel’s study recommends reducing the size of zones and changing the law so it actually targets the few people who sell drugs at or near schools. The message of this study is that the country can’t just imprison its way out of the problem. Coping with this issue will require a complex set of strategies, including drug abuse treatment and prevention services and increased judicial discretion in sentencing.