Short description of the idea (140 character tweet):Drug free zones are everywhere. Nonviolent offenders get treated like murderers. Map ATX DFZs and see why.
Your short answer
What is your project concept or idea? What challenge or opportunity will it solve?
Texas law categorizes a person selling drugs in a drug free zone as the same as a murderer or a rapist. These folks go away for a very, very long time, contributing significantly to our over-incarceration problem. This happens in part because the public doesn't understand how many drug free zones there are. Its not just around a school. It is 1000 feet from the outer perimeter of a public school boundary including all property owned or controlled by a school district or school board (even if its just for utilitarian purposes like storage and there are no children there), any private school including but not limited to charters, a college or university boundary, a day care, a park, a video arcade business (including but not limited to any kid oriented business that has video arcade games like Chuckee Cheeze or JumpUSA,) a youth center, a YMCA/YWCA facility, anything similar to a YMCA facility like Crenshaws Gym where kids are taught athletics. This has a huge impact on the sentences people get for otherwise small time dealing.
Who will benefit from your project? Describe the humans at the center of the problem - who are they?
How would they benefit? Can you tell their story?
Do you have photos of them? Or quotes?
We estimate that more than 1000 nonviolent offenders in Texas Prisons are serving sentences the equivalent of the most violent offenders (called 3g offenses) due to a school zone enhancement on a nonviolent drug offense. These individuals serve far longer sentences, get paroled (if they get paroled) much later in their sentence and may be more violent when they come out than when they went in. The public doesn't understand the impact of this enhancement in part because they think of it more narrowly (school zones) than it actually is written in law (any place children might be found)
Issue area(s) relevant to your project idea:
Arts & Culture
Children & Youth
Economic Opportunity & Development
Education
Environment & Sustainability
Food/Hunger
Health
Housing
Mobility/Transportation
Neighborhoods
Open Government/Transparency
Public Safety
Other
What is the current state of your project idea?
I have a fuzzy area of opportunity but don’t yet fully understand the challenge
I understand the challenge well but don’t yet have ideas for a solution
I have an idea or concept of a solution, but have not yet prototyped or tested it
I tested a prototype and want to build it
Tell us more about the current state of your project idea.
Do you have any links to news articles, text, mockups, code, or data?
Public Safety. For my part, I can start producing a list of addresses of the relevant locations in ATX but the coding to produce a map of 1000 feet from the perimeter of the property might be pretty complex. I imagine it would require some kind of cross reference to the Tax Assessor database or something like it with property boundaries rather than point location. So I guess my answer is I understand the challenge a bit, but don't know what to do.
Tell us about yourself.
What is your background? Why is this challenge important to you?
Are you representing a group in submitting this project idea?
Kathy Mitchell, Texas Criminal Justice Coalition: I have done volunteer work to reform criminal justice for 20 years and now work for a small local nonprofit that primarily focuses on state level reforms but also looks at local impact.
Short description of the idea (140 character tweet):Drug free zones are everywhere. Nonviolent offenders get treated like murderers. Map ATX DFZs and see why.
Your short answer
What is your project concept or idea? What challenge or opportunity will it solve?
Texas law categorizes a person selling drugs in a drug free zone as the same as a murderer or a rapist. These folks go away for a very, very long time, contributing significantly to our over-incarceration problem. This happens in part because the public doesn't understand how many drug free zones there are. Its not just around a school. It is 1000 feet from the outer perimeter of a public school boundary including all property owned or controlled by a school district or school board (even if its just for utilitarian purposes like storage and there are no children there), any private school including but not limited to charters, a college or university boundary, a day care, a park, a video arcade business (including but not limited to any kid oriented business that has video arcade games like Chuckee Cheeze or JumpUSA,) a youth center, a YMCA/YWCA facility, anything similar to a YMCA facility like Crenshaws Gym where kids are taught athletics. This has a huge impact on the sentences people get for otherwise small time dealing.
Who will benefit from your project? Describe the humans at the center of the problem - who are they?
How would they benefit? Can you tell their story?
Do you have photos of them? Or quotes?
We estimate that more than 1000 nonviolent offenders in Texas Prisons are serving sentences the equivalent of the most violent offenders (called 3g offenses) due to a school zone enhancement on a nonviolent drug offense. These individuals serve far longer sentences, get paroled (if they get paroled) much later in their sentence and may be more violent when they come out than when they went in. The public doesn't understand the impact of this enhancement in part because they think of it more narrowly (school zones) than it actually is written in law (any place children might be found)
Issue area(s) relevant to your project idea:
What is the current state of your project idea?
Tell us more about the current state of your project idea.
Do you have any links to news articles, text, mockups, code, or data?
Public Safety. For my part, I can start producing a list of addresses of the relevant locations in ATX but the coding to produce a map of 1000 feet from the perimeter of the property might be pretty complex. I imagine it would require some kind of cross reference to the Tax Assessor database or something like it with property boundaries rather than point location. So I guess my answer is I understand the challenge a bit, but don't know what to do.
Tell us about yourself.
What is your background? Why is this challenge important to you?
Are you representing a group in submitting this project idea?
Kathy Mitchell, Texas Criminal Justice Coalition: I have done volunteer work to reform criminal justice for 20 years and now work for a small local nonprofit that primarily focuses on state level reforms but also looks at local impact.