The Geography of Punishment:

How Huge Sentencing Enhancement Zones Harm Communities, Fail to Protect Children

by Aleks Kajstura, Peter Wagner and William Goldberg
July 2008

• Press release
• Executive Summary
• Report:
  • Introduction
  • Deterrence, in Theory and Practice
  • Failing to protect children, harming communities
  • An ‘urban effect’: Interlocking sentencing enhancement zones blanket urban areas and barely touch rural populations
  • Recommendations
  • Methodology
  • Acknowledgments
  • About the authors
• Sidebars and interactive maps:
  • 1,000 feet is further than you think
  • Vermont’s unique sentencing enhancement zone statute emphasizes that the zone laws should be highly specific and only one of many responses to drugs
  • Full page interactive version of Figure 5, a map of all zones and the population in Hampden County.
• Appendices:
  • Appendix A: County demographics.
  • Appendix B: Drug charges in Hampden County courts and in Massachusetts.
  • Appendix C: Demographic analysis of cities and towns in Hampden County.
  • Appendix D: Rural/Urban percentages of Hampden County cities and towns.
  • Appendix E: Demographic analysis of populations living in enhancement zones.
  • Appendix F: Demographic analysis of the populations living in enhancement zones, by House district.
  • Appendix G: Demographic analysis of populations living in recommended 100-foot enhancement zones.

Coverage

• Drug-Free Zones Facing Review by Jo-Ann Moriarty, Republican (Springfield, MA) July 26, 2008

See also

• Our sentencing enhancement zone campaign page with followup research, coverage and action.