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The beginning of the end of the Rockefeller Drug Laws

Spring 2009

On April 24, 2009, Governor David Paterson signed into law significant reforms marking the beginning of the end of New York’s notorious Rockefeller Drug Laws.

The reforms restore judicial discretion for broad categories of first and second time drug offenses, allow certain individuals currently incarcerated under the laws to apply for resentencing, and allocate $70 million in funding for alternatives to incarceration and drug treatment programs in prison and in the community. [click here for an analysis of the bill]

The CA’s decades of work on the issue were central in bringing about these proposed reforms. This deal comes less than three weeks after the CA’s Drop the Rock Advocacy Day in Albany— where advocates delivered 30,000 petitions calling for repeal to Paterson, Silver and Smith—and  only two days after a rally calling for the end of the Rockefeller Drug Laws outside of the Governor’s New York City office. Sources tell us that the night before the recent demonstration, members of Governor Paterson’s staff were asking legislative negotiators “Can we make a deal before the rally?”

This agreement represents a breach in the mandatory sentencing wall and marks the beginning of the end of the Rockefeller Drug Laws. It is a significant victory for the CA and other advocates and for justice.

But our work is not done:

  • Mandatory sentencing provisions remain on the books they will continue to catch in their net large numbers of low-level drug offenders who will face lengthy prison terms. 
  • The main criterion for guilt remains the weight of drugs found on people at the point of arrest, not their role in the transaction, a provision that will likely perpetuate the disproportionate policing of New York’s low-income communities of color, where drugs are generally dealt on the street and it is easier to make arrests.
  • Only about 1,500 of the nearly 12,000 people currently incarcerated under the laws would be eligible for retroactive resentencing.

The Correctional Association’s Drop the Rock campaign will continue to organize, educate New Yorkers, and use public pressure to urge Governor Paterson and legislative leaders to restore individualized justice in all drug cases.

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