CA Press Release
HUNDREDS OF DROP THE ROCK ADVOCATES FROM AROUND NEW YORK STATE JOIN IN ALBANY TO CALL FOR THE REPEAL OF THE ROCKEFELLER DRUG LAWS
GRASSROOTS COALITION WELCOMES NEW YORK'S THREE PRINCIPAL POLITICAL LEADERS, GOVERNOR DAVID PATERSON, ASSEMBLY SPEAKER SHELDON SILVER, AND SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MALCOM SMITH, WHO WILL ADDRESS THE AUDIENCE ON THE NEED FOR CHANGE
DROP THE ROCK ACTIVISTS DELIVER 30,000 SIGNED PETITIONS URGING FULL REPEAL TO GOVERNOR, ASSEMBLY SPEAKER, AND SENATE MAJORITY LEADER
| For Immediate Release | March 9, 2009 | |
| Contact: | Robert Gangi |
Caitlin Dunklee |
Drop the Rock Campaign Day of Action and Education
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Albany, New York, March 10, 2009: Hundreds of people from across the state will assemble in Albany on Tuesday, March 10 for the DROP THE ROCK Day of Action and Education. They will gather at the State Education Building (89 Washington Avenue) at 10 A.M. Governor David Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith will address the crowd from approximately 10:45-11:15 P.M. Drop the Rock Coalition members will deliver 30,000 petition signatures calling for the repeal of the Rockefeller Drug Laws into the hands of the Governor, Majority Leader, and Assembly Speaker.
Additional speakers include: Assemblymember Jeffrion Aubry, Senator Eric Schniederman, Assemblymember Joseph Lentol, Albany County District Attorney David Soares, and community advocates who have been affected by the Rockefeller Drug Laws
Following the morning session there will be a march to Emmanuel Baptist Church (275 State Street) at 11:30 A.M. There, the coalition members will break up into small lobby groups and receive training on the specific proposed reform bills. In the afternoon, beginning at 2:00 P.M., forty lobby teams will meet with over one hundred legislators.
According to Robert Gangi, Executive Director of the Correctional Association of New York: “The Rockefeller Drug Laws are wasteful, ineffective, unjust and marked by racial bias, and it is long past time to remove them from New York’s penal code. Our task now, as Drop the Rock advocates, is both to applaud the leadership of Governor Paterson, Speaker Silver, and Majority Leader Smith and to keep the pressure on them so that the change enacted this year includes the broad restoration of judicial discretion, thereby achieving the true quality of justice we seek.”
Caitlin Dunklee, Public Policy Associate for the Correctional Association: “Our moment is now. For the first time since the Rockefeller Drug Laws were enacted over 35 years ago, the State’s three most important political leaders – the Governor, the Assembly Speaker, and the Senate Majority Leader – are all actively pressing for serious drug law reform. And the State’s fiscal crisis means that these very same leaders must find ways to cut government spending without reducing education, healthcare, housing, and other needed services. Repealing the Rockefeller Drug Laws and diverting thousands of low-level offenders from prison can save hundreds of millions of dollars a year.”
Assemblymember Jeffrion Aubry has introduced legislation 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.
Attached to this email are three documents: A fact sheet on the Rockefeller Drug Laws, statements by New York’s three key political leaders supporting change, and an analysis of the positive and negative measures in the Assembly reform bill (A6085).
Drop the Rock is coordinated by the Correctional Association of New York’s Public Policy Project.
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