This is big. One of the worst drug laws in the country, in terms of its aggregate impact on people, may finally be on the way out.
The NY Times reports that the New York State Assembly has agree to repeal the state's Rockefeller drug laws. The hitch has long been in the Senate; Assembly members didn't want to take the heat for their votes so long as the Senate was going to block enactment of the bill anyway. Now, they apparently believe that the state Senate looks like it will cooperate, so the Assembly will take the lead.
I'm posting the story here to get it out; I'll come back soon and expand on the diary.
The Assembly’s proposal restores judges’ discretion in sentencing in many lower-level drug possession crimes. Judges would be able to send many offenders to treatment programs instead of prison without receiving consent from prosecutors. In addition, the measure would permit about 2,000 prisoners to apply to have their sentences reconsidered.
The drug laws have been among the most divisive social issues debated by Albany lawmakers. Bills aimed at changing the statutes, known as the Rockefeller drug laws because former Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller championed them, have been debated in the Legislature for years, only to stall in the Senate, which until this year was run by Republicans.
With Democrats now in the majority in the Senate and Gov. David A. Paterson an avowed Rockefeller change advocate, supporters of rewriting the drug laws see this year as their best chance to pass a plan that essentially does away with mandatory sentences for drug crimes.
Unsurprisingly, this is the sort of topic that Wikipedia does well; I encourage you to read the entire entry. Here are some highlights:
Under the Rockefeller drug laws, the penalty for selling two ounces (approximately 56 grams) or more of heroin, morphine, "raw or prepared opium," cocaine, or cannabis, including marijuana (these latter two being included in the statute even though they are not "narcotics" from a chemical standpoint), or possessing four ounces (approximately 113 grams) or more of the same substances, was made the same as that for second-degree murder: a minimum of 15 years to life in prison, and a maximum of 25 years to life in prison. The original legislation also mandated the same penalty for committing a violent crime while under the influence of the same drugs, but this provision was subsequently omitted from the bill and was not part of the legislation Rockefeller ultimately signed. The section of the laws applying to marijuana was repealed in 1979, under the Democratic Governor Hugh Carey.
In his first State of the State Address in January 2009, New York Governor David Paterson was critical of the Rockefeller drug laws, stating, "I can’t think of a criminal justice strategy that has been more unsuccessful than the Rockefeller drug laws."
Paterson has come in for a lot of heat here recently, but in my opinion this substantive change is more important than everything else he's done combined.
Here's a paragraph from the New York Academy of Medicine -- no hotbed of radicalism -- on the need to eliminate these laws:
New York is uniquely prepared to develop more effective, coordinated drug policies. There is a growing consensus that the Rockefeller Drug Laws have failed and are in urgent need of reform. These laws exacerbate the damage caused by drug use, particularly among the poor, people of color, the homeless, formerly incarcerated individuals, and other marginalized groups. New York City and State have emerged as national leaders in the fields of drug treatment and harm reduction – interventions that are often more effective and much cheaper than incarceration at reducing the death, disease, crime and suffering associated with drug use and addiction. New York has an opportunity to build upon our innovative public health solutions to reduce use of other substances which adversely affect the public’s health. For example, New York’s public health response helped reduce rates of smoking by 11% for adults and 40% for high school students between 2000 and 2006.
The New York State Defenders Association (criminal defense group) has a page with some excellent links, including to this special report in the New York Law Journal.