CASAS

Consortium of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services
Serving the Monroe County/Greater Finger Lakes Region of New York State

OVERVIEW OF THE REFORM OF THE NYS DRUG LAWS

    Governor George Pataki has released an initiative that would reform the Rockefekker-era Drug Laws.  The Rockefeller rules are seen by many as excessively strict and punitive, with little recognition for the role or effectiveness of treatment or discretion in issuing criminal penalties.

     The new proposal has several features that are both positive and helpful to the criminal justice sustem.  The proposal gives judges the discretion to send non-violent felony offenders to drug treament programs, and the discretion to reduce prison terms for repeat offenders with no history of violent felonies.  The minimum prison sentence for some drug offenders would be cut nearly in half - the plan would lower the minimum term for possession of 4 ounces or more of narcotics from 15 years to 8 1/2 years, and would also allow those already serving time for those offenses to try to get their sentences cut.

     If convicts drop out of residential treatment programs, they would go to state prison and not get credit against their sentence for the time they were in treatment.

     "The proposal seems to be a well balanced plan that both addresses the (overly) severe sentences of the Rockefeller drug laws, while recognizing that effective treatment for non-violent offenders can work," Pataki said.

     Today  22,000 of the 70,000 prison inmates who are serving time, are there because of drug use.  Each prison stay costs about $30,000 per year per inmate.

    POSITIVES OF DRUG LAW REFORM:

     o Heightens penalties for selling illegal substances over the internet.
     o Closes a "kingpin loophole" that allows some drug traffickers to get 1-3 years.  Instead, it wll impose
            15 year-to-life terms for those who exercise leadership positions in drug rings.
     o Class C, D, and E drug offenders without violent  records could be sentenced to 6 months in a residential
            drug-treatment program to avoid the 1-to-3 years in prison.
     o For repeat Class B offenses, reduces the maximum from 4 1/2-to-9 years to a determinate
            sentence of of 4 years.
     o For first time Class A-1 drug offenders without violent records, it reduces from 15 years-to-life,
            to 8 1/2 years-to-life.   For repeat offenders without violent records, the maximum sentence would
            be reduced to 10 years-to-life.  This would also allow inmates already serving time under the harshest
            drug laws to appeal and receive reduced sentences.
     o In most cases this translates into more people receiving drug treatment (if residential treatment is
            available), to lower costs to taxpayers, and for more rehabilitation for those in most need.

KEY POINTS TO REMEMBER:

     o The government shouldn't "get soft" on crime, but rather, "get smart".
     o Maximum penalties should be reserved for sellers and distributors rather than users and addicts.
     o Criminal penalties have often proved to be excellent clinical motivation for penetrating denial and
            as motivation for change and sustained growth.
     o This new system cannot absorb new admissions without more resources.

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