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Public
Employee Press Political
Action 2009 Coalition drives to change harsh Rocky
drug laws
DC 37 political activists and the Drop the Rock
coalition of labor unions and grassroots community groups demonstrated in Albany
March 10 and handed Gov. David A. Paterson more than 30,000 signatures on petitions
calling for reform of the states harsh Rockefeller drug laws.
The
36-year-old laws are the nations most severe and inflexible, imposing mandatory
prison sentences on nonviolent first offenders instead of allowing treatment,
and are widely regarded as discriminatory against minorities and the poor.
Its
time to dismantle the Rockefeller approach, which has proved to be ineffective,
and stop locking up people who need rehabilitation, said DC 37 Political
Director Wanda Williams.
In an effort to achieve a compromise between the
state Assembly and Senate, Paterson proposed a bill that would give judges discretion
to send low-level drug felons to treatment rather than prison on the condition
that they plead guilty. The governors bill would provide funds to expand
treatment programs, but unlike the bill passed in the Assembly, it would not fund
treatment in prison or help released offenders with vocational training, housing
and programs to stem recidivism. | |