Well, That’s One Way To Do It

Recall our previous post about the debate in Albany over the Rockefeller drug laws. Here’s a bit more background:

Passed in 1973, a period of hysteria over drug use, when Nelson Rockefeller was Governor, the "Rockefeller Drug Laws" require harsh prison sentences for the possession or sale of relatively small amounts of drugs…

[The laws] are in contradiction to the general criminal justice principle that judges should have discretion to set sentences based on a defendant’s individual circumstances: the statute sets the minimum, and eliminates judicial discretion. They are racist in their impact: African-Americans and Latinos comprise roughly 90% of the drug offenders in New York State prisons. And, they are expensive for the state. Opponents of the laws have roughly estimated that reform would lead to an annual savings of $221 million in 2007, based an assumption that 60% of the roughly 6000 drug offenders in state prison would be diverted into an alternative rehabilitation plan, at a savings of $60,000 annually for each person diverted.

The Republican solution to keeping people employed upstate is apparently to keep them at work in prisons:

As part of a push to repeal the mandatory sentencing laws known as the Rockefeller Drug Laws, Governor Paterson will propose a compromise bill intended to woo State Senate Republicans, who largely represent rural areas upstate where prisons are major sources of jobs. According to the Times , the bill, which is still being drafted, will be proposed as part of the package of budget bills that lawmakers must approve by April 1st, and will call for spending roughly $50 million to finance treatment programs and additional drug courts…

But Senate Republicans are expected to object to at least one new facet to the governor’s bill, which would reduce the notice period required before the state can close a prison to 90 days, from one year. If the Rockefeller Drug Laws are repealed, some of the state’s less populated prisons will probably close.