Local lawmakers are sounding notes of support for Gov. Deval Patrick’s proposal to reduce to 100 feet from 1,000 feet the drug-free zones around schools.

The proposal, aimed at reducing the number of nonviolent offenders in a strained prison system, has drawn fire from law enforcement officials. But local lawmakers say the current law sends too many low-level offenders to jail, clogging the system.

“I don’t think it changes how we fight drug dealing,” said state Rep. Marty Walsh, a Dorchester Democrat. “I think when the school zone was first implemented…it was a good idea,” but it isn’t stopping individuals from selling drugs near a school, he said.

The nonviolent offenders are taking up space where “more serious” criminals should be placed, he said, instead of getting sent to treatment programs.

Patrick’s proposed law would keep the mandatory minimum of two years in prison for dealing near a school.

State Rep. Linda Dorcena Forry, also a Dorchester Democrat, said the reduction of the school zone makes sense for urban communities because of the high number of schools in the neighborhood, particularly in Dorchester. “I do think it makes sense for urban communities because then you don’t clog up the system,” said Forry, who is married to Reporter managing editor Bill Forry.

Two of Dorchester and Mattapan’s newer legislators, Reps. Carlos Henriquez and Russell Holmes, said they were still reviewing the proposal.

“I’m looking at both sides of the argument,” Henriquez said. “I understand it takes some leverage away from law enforcement.”

But Henriquez also pointed to Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis’s support for the legislation. Other law enforcement officials disagree.

“One hundred feet generally is only the distance between two telephone poles,” Wayne Sampson, executive director of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, told the Associated Press. “It’s a very small area. Quite honestly, somebody could be just across the street from a school and be more than 100 feet away.”

The proposed legislation was filed as part of the governor’s $30.5 billion budget package, which is also drawing criticism from human services advocates who say programs they support are taking a disproportionate cut.

But proponents of anti-violence programs for youth hailed what they called a 75 percent increase for their top three programs. The popular Shannon anti-violence grant program received an increase to $8.5 million, from the $4.5 million it received in last year’s budget. A youth jobs program dubbed YouthWorks more than doubled to $8.4 million, and another youth jobs program increased to $3.5 million from $2 million.

“He makes a tremendous commitment in this tough year of a major state budget deficit,” Lew Finfer, executive director of Massachusetts Communities Action Network, said in an e-mail message.

Material from State House News Service was used in this report.