CA Press Release

HUNDREDS OF DROP THE ROCK ADVOCATES FROM AROUND NY STATE JOIN IN ALBANY TO CALL FOR THE REPEAL OF
THE ROCKEFELLER DRUG LAWS

DROP THE ROCK CAMPAIGN DAY OF ACTION AND EDUCATION
Thursday March 27, 2008

For Immediate Release                                           March 26, 2008

Contact:     Robert Gangi                                          Caitlin Dunklee
                    Executive Director                                  Public Policy Project Associate
                    212-254-5700, ext. 305                        212-254-5700, ext. 339
                    917-327-7648                                        646-269-7344

Albany, New York – Hundreds of people from across the state will assemble in Albany on Thursday, March 27th for the DROP THE ROCK Day of Action and Education. They will gather at the Wilborn Temple (121 Jay Street) at 10 A.M. Assemblymember Jeffrion Aubry, Chair of the Committee on Correction; Albany County District Attorney David Soares; Robert Gangi, Executive Director of the Correctional Association; and, several community advocates will address the crowd. In the afternoon, thirty lobby teams will meet with over one hundred legislators.

An umbrella for the numerous groups working to change New York’s Rockefeller Drug Laws, Drop the Rock has been endorsed by over 200 organizations and individuals concerned about New York State’s heedless use of prisons to lock up minor, non-violent offenders.

New York State is facing a $4.5 billion dollar deficit, while it spends $500 million each year on incarcerating drug offenders, the majority of whom have no history of violence and were only marginally involved in the drug trade. Studies have consistently shown that treatment programs are not only much less costly than imprisonment but also more effective in reducing the crime associated with the drug trade.

The principal so-called reform of the Rockefeller Drug Laws was passed in 2004, yet more people were sent to prison for drug offenses in the three years that followed: (5,657) in 2004, (5,835) in 2005, (6,039) in 2006, and (6,148) in 2007. According to Caitlin Dunklee, Drop the Rock Coordinator: “The severe aspects of these laws are still on the books: Mandatory sentencing provisions remain intact, meaning that judges still do not have discretion in deciding whether to send someone to prison or an alternative-to-incarceration program.”

Statistics show that the majority of drug users and sellers are white, yet 90% of the more than 13,000 men and women incarcerated under New York’s drug laws are African-American and Latino.

Robert Gangi, Executive Director of the Correctional Association of NY, said: “The Rockefeller Drug Laws are wasteful, ineffective, unjust and marked by racial bias. They distort law enforcement practices and foster imbalance in the adjudication of drug cases. It is time to remove the stain of these statutes from New York’s penal code.”

Assemblymember Jeffrion L. Aubry has introduced legislation (A4342) to repeal the Rockefeller Drug Laws. If enacted, this bill would restore sentencing discretion to trial judges in all drug cases; make sentencing reform retroactive; significantly expand funding for alternatives to incarceration; and reduce sentence lengths for offenders who trial judges send to prison.

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