Press Release:
March 27, 2009
Contact: media@famm.org
Historic Agreement to Reform NY Rockefeller Drug Laws is
Good News for New Yorkers and the Nation, says FAMM
After 36 years of costing taxpayers millions and destroying countless lives with prison sentences that do not fit the crime, many of New York’s mandatory minimum drug sentences, known as the Rockefeller Drug Laws, are on the verge of being overturned.
Today, New York Governor David Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith announced a deal that would, if passed, reform some of the worst injustices of New York state drug sentencing laws. The deal would restore judicial discretion in most drug cases, expand drug treatment and alternatives to incarceration, and provide retroactive sentencing relief for people serving prison time for low-level drug offenses.
Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), a national nonprofit organization dedicated to reforming mandatory minimum sentencing laws, applauds the leadership shown by Governor Paterson, Assembly Speaker Silver and Senate Majority Leader Smith.
Deborah Fleischaker, director of state legislative affairs of FAMM, issued the following statement in response to today’s news:
“FAMM commends Gov. Paterson, Speaker Silver and Sen. Smith for their leadership in reforming the oldest mandatory minimum sentences in the nation. Since 1973, New York’s Rockefeller Drug Laws have packed prisons, too often with nonviolent, first-time drug offenders, many of whom would benefit greatly from drug treatment. When this reform becomes law, New York will join other states like Michigan, which repealed most of its mandatory minimum drug laws in 1998 and 2003, in moving toward sentencing laws that hold people accountable for breaking the law, but allow courts to tailor appropriate sentences according to the individual and the crime.
Contrary to the claims of those who oppose these reforms, removing the mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes is not “soft on crime.” Politicians need to concern themselves with crafting smart criminal justice policies, instead of settling for the expensive and unworkable status quo. The New York reforms, though long overdue, are good news for New Yorkers and the rest of the nation. A recent report by Pew Center on the States shows why. One in 31 Americans are under some form of criminal justice control – in prison, on probation or on parole – and one in 100 are in prison or jail. The cost of this overreliance on corrections is staggering – last year it was the fastest expanding major segment of state budgets, and over the past two decades, its growth as a share of state expenditures has been second only to Medicaid. State corrections costs now top $50 billion annually and consume one in every 15 discretionary dollars.
Mandatory minimum sentencing laws are a driving force in skyrocketing prison populations. Many states and the federal government followed New York’s lead and enacted mandatory minimums in the 1970s and 1980s, believing these “one-size-fits-all” sentences would dry up the drug supply and eliminate drug addiction. Sadly, mandatory minimums in New York and elsewhere have the opposite effect, filling our prisons with drug addicts instead of drug kingpins, and causing the erosion of faith in the fairness of the criminal justice system because of severe racial disparities caused by these laws.
It is time for state and federal lawmaker to embrace smart on crime approaches to the drug problem, starting with eliminating mandatory minimums and allowing courts to fit the punishment to the individual and the crime. ”
Families Against Mandatory Minimums is a national nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that supports fair and proportionate sentencing laws that allow judicial discretion while maintaining public safety. For more information on FAMM, visit www.famm.org or contact Monica Pratt Raffanel at media@famm.org.
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