NCJ Number
137640
Date Published
1992
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This analysis provides a criminal history profile for drug traffickers sentenced to incarceration in 1990 and 1991 in Delaware, the time period in which SB142 was fully in effect.
Abstract
In July 1989, the Delaware State Senate Bill 142 significantly toughened the State's drug trafficking law, as it lowered the weight threshold for drug trafficking from 15 to 5 grams and made possession of this amount of illicit drugs "per se" evidence of drug trafficking. Conviction yields a mandatory sentence of at least 3 years incarceration. This study compared the criminal history profiles of those sentenced under these provisions with the other high volume Class B felony, robbery in the first degree, and the next most serious drug offense, possession with the intent to deliver (PWITD). Seventy-eight percent of the offenders incarcerated for drug trafficking under SB142 had no prior incarcerations, 15 percent had been to jail, and just under 8 percent had been imprisoned at least once. In all cases, drug-trafficking offenders under SB142 had a less serious criminal history profile than those convicted of robbery and PWITD. 2 tables and 1 figure