SYRACUSE -- New York's Rockefeller Drug Laws which, since 1973, have mandated long prison terms for sales or possession, have been eased over the years. This year, there is a new effort to reform them further.
The New York Civil Liberties Union is leading the charge, saying the laws are discriminatory. Barrie Gewanter, from the CNY Civil Liberties Union, says 72% of New Yorkers who have tried illegal drugs are white, while more than 90% incarcerated are black or latino. She also had maps showing (from 2006 reports) how the number of people in prison, from primarily minority neighborhoods in Syracuse, is more than double other neighborhoods.
District Attorneys, including Onondaga County's William Fitzpatrick, have also been in Albany lobbying, but against further drug law reforms. "The Rockefeller Drug Laws no longer exist," he says, and "they're dead wrong, but they mean well" he says of the people pushing the reforms.
Fitzpatrick says that these days a B-level offense gets a year in prison, which translates to eight months' time, hardly long or harsh. He also says that in 2008, prosecutors put more people into alternative treatment than in prison for drug offenses.
Gewanter agrees that Onondaga County has viable alternatives, but that the rest of the state needs them as well. The two sides disagree on who makes the decision on what sentence is offered. The Civil Liberties Union pushes for judges to decide (the original Rockefeller Laws took judicial discretion out, to make sentences, statewise, more uniform). Fitzpatrick says it should be up to prosecutors. He points to his own office's DETAB (Drug Treatment Alternative to Prison program) which includes an office screening program to separate out the 'hard core' from the people who might benefit from alternatives.
Paula Johnson, a Syracuse University professor of criminal law, says more community-based treatment could be more economical. Incarcerating a prisoner costs about $44,000 a year in New York State. In the long-term, treatment would be more beneficial socially. Fitzpatrick worries that the reforms will mean more drug dealers on the streets, and more bad news for neighborhoods at "the worst possible time in our history."
The State Assembly has already passed the drug reform law. The State Senate is expected to take up the issue soon.
