Will YOU or YOUR LOVED ONE BE ELIGIBLE for the new reforms?
Greetings!
As you may already know, FREE! Families Rally for Emancipation and Empowerment (formerly Prison Families Community Forum) is a collective of people with loved ones in prison, working together to make positive changes in our communities. Since our inception in 2002, (as part of the Fifth Avenue Committee’s Developing Justice Project), FREE! has made a commitment to overturn the wasteful, ineffective Mandatory Minimum “Rockefeller” Drug Laws that have bewildered and torn apart constituent families. We are part of the Drop the Rock Coalition, and the Real Reform Coalition.
Exciting times are upon us, after 36 years of collective fighting and much hard work to eradicate the racist, draconian drug laws instituted by Nelson Rockefeller in 1973. These laws have cost NYS hundreds of millions of dollars each year, (billions, overall) and more importantly, destroyed hundreds of thousands of lives that otherwise could have been redirected, preserving their inherent human value. Drugs are a public health issue related not only to addictions to controlled substances, but highlighting the ill health of our most disenfranchised communities.
On April 7th, 2009, following enormous pressure from directly affected communities, activists, advocates, and overwhelming public opinion, Governor David Paterson, an ally himself on this issue, signed into law, a Budget Bill, containing some significant changes to Mandatory Minimum Drug Laws in New York State. The changes made by re-allocating funds under the Public Protections portion of the Budget reflect a much of the language in legislation passed by the Assembly and Senate (in Bill A6805/S2855).
That Bill, however, did not become law on it’s own. Those proposed reforms to the drug laws instead have become Chapter 56 (B), or embedded into Article VII of the Fiscal Laws of 2009. You can find the specific language under Article VII, page 113. The funded parts of this enactment are distributed throughout the Appropriations Bill, and I was able to find two lines specifically designated to “Drug Law Reform” totaling $10,800,000. (Where’s the rest of the hundreds of millions?) Of course, other aspects would appear on line items that deal with substance abuse treatment, and other types of ATI programming, as well as other areas.
These changes will restore some judicial discretion for drug related felonies of level “B” or lower. It will also allocate approximately $72 million dollars over the next two years toward re-entry resources, ATI’s (Alternative to Incarceration programs), including substance abuse treatment.
The reforms will allow a fraction of those currently incarcerated or on parole for drug felonies to apply for re-sentencing. That’s less than 2,000 of the 12,000 currently serving time under these laws, (and a fraction of those on parole). There is no guarantee that a lower sentence will be won by any individuals in particular, but some will have the opportunity to apply.
Many, however, will not.
Think your family will be reunited, soon, under these reforms? We certainly hope so. Yet, if your 19 year old son was arrested for selling a controlled substance to his 17 year old buddy, that’s “sale to a minor” and he won’t be coming home, anytime soon. If at age 21 you were “stupidly” involved in a bar fight that got out of control, that prior violent felony conviction will keep you from getting your non-violent drug charge reduced (even though you’re now in your 30’s and have transformed your life/stye). An A-1 drug felony doesn’t even enter into the debate – and we’re not talking about true kingpins, here – no discretion whatsoever, no matter what. And there are countless other examples – 10,000 imprisoned, and tens of thousands still under the custody of parole – ineligible.
California and New York are often looked to as “leader” states in the U.S. and changes here impact everyone. For example, after passage of the Rockefeller Drug Laws in 1973, several states followed with passage of similar legislation. And as California considers a new economic framework for Marijuana, so goes the debate across the country. The work we’ve all done, together, is a huge leap in the right direction, and has gained much momentum, and International press, that should not be discounted.
However, the mainstream press has touted the “End of Rockefeller Drug Laws” since mid March, and in their coverage, have pretty much sealed the deal in the minds of the general public that Mandatory Minimums are no more... Unfortunately, this is simply not true. And to resign our struggle to these changes only, would be to turn our backs on tens of thousands of our brothers and sisters who will know no justice under Chapter 56 (B).
Our communities need healing. Our communities need re-humanizing. Our communities need to be invested in, the same way that profit driven industries, like prisons, have been invested in. An estimated $220 million per year would be “saved” if all of the tenets of A6805/S2855 were enacted. We want to see each and every one of those dollars spent on building safer, more productive communities across NY, by augmenting education, recreation, weatherization, rehabilitation, employment, and health care, starting with the seven most impacted neighborhoods –all of which “happen” to be in New York City, and “happen” to be populated with low-income people of color.
Sure, we’ve “won” reforms, and elected officials and reformists – even repealists can and should celebrate this victory, along the road toward eradication. But for FREE! the biggest accomplishment or “victory” here lies in the demonstrative truth that throughout New York State and across the world, the overwhelming majority believe it is truly time for a complete END to Mandatory Minimums. As such, we continue forward, to achieve what is believed, now, by many, to have already been done. No More “Rockefeller” Drug Laws! Repeal Mandatory Minimums, Now!
In solidarity,
Kym Clark
Founder
FREE! Families Rally for Emancipation and Empowerment
Senator Eric Schneiderman explains and debates his and Jeffrion Aubrey's (et al) proposed reforms to the Rockefeller Drug Law on the floor of the NYS Senate:
State Senator Eric Schneiderman Explaining Provisions of Drug Law Reform from Michael Meade on Vimeo.