A Small Minnesota County Pumps Out 40 Percent of the State's Drug-Free Zone Sentences

Local news reports detail how Polk County, Minnesota, charges drivers and petty offenders with drug-free zone violations like no other county in the state.

In Minnesota, the epicenter of prosecutions for violating drug-free school and park zone laws isn't Minneapolis, but small Polk County. The county contains less than 1 percent of the state's population, but it's responsible for 40 percent of its drug-free school prosecutions, more than any other county, according to local news reports.

The charging practices were first reported by the Grand Forks Herald last year. The Minnesota Reformer followed up with an investigation last week revealing how Polk County prosecutors used drug-free zone laws to target petty drug offenders who inadvertently drove through one of the numerous zones or were in a private residence. The Reformer found that the number of drug-free school zone charges in Polk County skyrocketed after the state lowered the criminal penalties for petty drug crimes.

All 50 states and the District of Columbia have drug-free zone laws, which enhance sentences for drug crimes committed within a certain distance of schools, parks, daycares, or other designated areas. The laws were passed in the 1980s and 1990s with the goal of deterring drug activity around places where children congregate.

However, civil liberties groups and even some current and former prosecutors say such drug-free zones are rarely, if ever, used to prosecute drug cases involving minors. Instead, prosecutors use the laws to enhance sentences and squeeze guilty pleas out of defendants who drive through one of these numerous zones or are in a private residence, day or night.

A 2017 Reason investigation showed how Tennessee's drug-free zones covered huge swaths of urban areas and turned minor drug crimes into mandatory minimum prison sentences that rivaled those for second-degree murder and rape. The Tennessee Legislature passed a bill in 2020 reducing the size of these zones from 1,000 feet to 500 feet and requiring that the mandatory minimums be applied only if a defendant's conduct actually endangered children.

Over the past decade, Utah, Indiana, and Massachusetts also passed laws reducing their drug-free zone laws and associated criminal penalties in response to similar concerns.

But there is no such similar restriction in Minnesota's drug-free school zone law preventing Polk County prosecutors from charging anyone caught with drugs within 300 feet or one city block of a park, school, public housing, or drug treatment facility, regardless of the circumstances.

Local public defenders and criminal defense attorneys say that there's so many of these zones that they're impossible to avoid. If you're pulled over by police while driving in a Polk County town, it's more likely than not that you'll be in, or have driven through, a drug-free zone.

"Anecdotally from my experience, in East Grand Forks it's a 90 percent chance, maybe more," Eric Gudmundson, a Polk County public defender, tells Reason. "Crookston, probably 50 to 60 percent. In smaller towns it's still about a 1 in 3 chance."

As the Grand Forks Herald and Reformer detailed, no other county applies the law as frequently as Polk County. When police officers find drugs or drug paraphernalia in a car, they ask the driver to describe their route and then use that as evidence to charge the driver with a drug-free zone violation.

"I've dealt with eight or nine counties in Minnesota on a fairly regular basis, and Polk is the only one that utilizes it to any significant degree," Gudmundson says. "In other counties, if you're right next to a school or park you might get charged, but it's pretty unlikely if you're just passing through."

Longtime Polk County Attorney Greg Widseth says his office is applying the law as written, and that it hasn't changed its approach to these cases in decades. Courts have consistently upheld the charging practices on appeal.

In a statement to Reason, Widseth says: 

"As I have told other interviewers, I cannot tell you why other counties do what they do. Since I took office in January 2003, my office has consistently taken the position that if you sell or possess drugs (typically methamphetamine) within a school or a park zone, you will be charged with the enhanced crime as the statute authorizes. It has been the position of my office to pursue these cases in an effort to keep controlled substances out of these areas. Even the Minnesota Supreme Court has noted the reason for the law is to enhance the penalty for those who sell/possess drugs in a "school zone" or "park zone" in an effort to protect children from the dangers associated with illegal drug use. We have charged this offense consistently for over 20 years, and nothing has changed during that time in the way we approach this crime. Like any other charge, how a case ultimately is resolved depends upon lots of factors and considerations, but the charging decision has remained the same. Again, I cannot speak to other counties charging practices, only to ours. I also would note that despite numerous recent revisions in the drug laws, the legislature has kept the school/park zone offenses on the books. If that changes in the future, we will adjust accordingly as we do with any changes in the laws in this state."

However, the Reformer found that drug-free zone prosecutions spiked in 2017, from less than two dozen the previous year to more than 120.

"The timing is notable because in 2016 the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission, which sets sentencing standards across the state, initiated changes that reduced penalties for many minor drug offenses," the Reformer wrote. "Prosecutors in Polk County vehemently opposed those changes."

When the Minnesota legislature decriminalized trace drug residue on paraphernalia, it didn't include school zones and parks for the sensible reason that no one wants dirty needles near a playground. But the way that Polk County prosecutes these offenses means that offenders who were nowhere near children can face a felony charge, higher bail, more pressure to plead guilty, and possible prison time for conduct that would be a petty misdemeanor in the rest of the state.

"The difference is so stark," Gudmundson says, "between 'This isn't a crime at all,' and 'You might go to prison for years.'"