DROP THE ROCK

The nation's harshest drug laws -- a legacy of New York Gov. Nelson
Rockefeller -- are now entering their 30th year.

Attempts at reforming New York State drug laws drags on while 19,000 people
languish in prison. The law was intended to target big-time dealers -- and
some of the incarcerated are indeed violent offenders. But up to 90 percent
of them, estimates Rev. John H. Cole of the United Methodist church, are
addicted, low-level street dealers, guilty only of selling small amounts of
heroin or cocaine or crack.

And 94 percent of them are Latino or black -- though they use drugs at the
same rate as whites. Commit a second offense, and almost any speck of drugs
leads to hard time. Warehousing them helps provide some 30,000 jobs, mostly
in depressed upstate New York at a cost of $700 million a year -- this in a
state facing a more than $1 billion budget deficit.

Meanwhile, the state's leaders call for reform and blame others for a
stalemate that has existed since at least early 2001, when New York's
Republican Governor, George Pataki, proposed a species of reform.

Seeking to stifle the impact of demonstrators chanting at the "Drop the
Rock" protest outside his mid-Manhattan office last week, Pataki floated
another trial balloon in the press, the second time he's done so following
his much castigated formal proposal.

Currently mulling a run for the presidency, the Rev. Al Sharpton charged at
the "Drop the Rock" demonstration that New York is "throwing entire lives
away, with no chance of redemption, no chance of a mainstream American
life. They attack the vulnerable, not the source of the drugs."

As a federal judge quoted by Human Rights Watch observed, "It is difficult
to believe that the possession of an ounce of cocaine or a $20 'street
sale' is a more dangerous or serious offense" than rape, arson or
manslaughter. Yet the drug offense may carry more time. HRW added that due
to the focus entirely on the drug's weight, "The law does not distinguish
between persons whose criminal conduct is limited to a single incident or
who are marginal participants & and career criminals or manage[rs] of large
criminal enterprises."

The three major candidates for governor in New York this November are all
ostensibly in favor of reform. Pataki leads both Democrats, State
Comptroller H. Carl McCall and former Clinton cabinet member Andrew M.
Cuomo, in the polls by some 20 points. Pataki's state spokesperson,
Caroline Quartararo, said Pataki will follow up his leak to the press by
proposing a bill within a "few weeks."

But with the Legislature closing down by the end of June at the latest,
does that offer enough time to thrash out a bill? Apparently negotiations
between the Assembly and the administration have picked up some steam, and
Quartararo said Pataki's new director of criminal justice, Chauncey G.
Parker, has spent "hundreds of hours meeting with various stakeholders on
this."

Speaking to perhaps 200 admiring protestors, Sharpton noted that changing
New York's laws, the nation's most repressive, would aid reform nationwide.
Then he charged: "Pataki -- quit talking out of both sides of your mouth.
We need repeal now. Too many white-collar criminals rob people of billions
of dollars and walk away with probation. And yet some kid convicted on a
minor reefer arrest does all kinds of state time. It's not fair." Robert
Gangi, executive director of the reform organization, the Correctional
Association of New York, believes that Pataki does truly want a change, but
that he doesn't appreciate the importance of judicial discretion. He
concluded, "There's a chance, a real chance."

Noting Pataki's vulnerability in economically depressed upstate New York,
Tamar Kraft-Stolar, a coordinator at the Correctional Association, said,
"It's clear he wants it off the table during the campaign." She added, "He
wants to gain votes without going too far."

Randy Credico, director of the William Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice,
said Pataki is "tiptoeing -- he's trimming the edges at best." Part of the
problem is that the three state senators most opposed to reform have,
according to Credico, a total of 30 correctional facilities located in
their districts.

As to the Democrats, Andrew Cuomo has been missing in action, according to
several reformers. Carl McCall has been foresquare in criticizing Pataki
and calling for reform. Declaring McCall "very good" on the issue, Credico
said, "Cuomo is dodging it. His father built the prisons, so no one in my
groups is too thrilled with the name Cuomo."

Sharda Sekaran, associate director of public policy for the Drug Policy
Alliance, declared McCall a vocal advocate. She believes Cuomo also is
supportive of reform, but said, "I don't know how public he's been."
Indeed, the Cuomo campaign did not respond to several requests for comment.

Sharpton told AlterNet that Cuomo and McCall need to show their "dramatic
opposition" around the state, but, "I don't know what they're doing."

Howard Josepher, director of the Manhattan treatment center Exponents,
said, "All of them are taking the talk, but no one is putting themselves on
the line to endorse real repeal and reform. Both the Democrats and
Republicans are keeping it locked in committee. You would think [Assembly
Speaker] Sheldon Silver would be most responsive -- it's the Democrats'
constituents who are affected."

Credico said the Mothers of the New York Disappeared will be holding
Pataki's feet to the fire regularly at his campaign stops. Additionally,
150,000 recorded phone calls to typically minority communities from
Sharpton and former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer, will seek to
keep pressure building.

Reformers hope to utilize that pressure to enact several changes in the
current law, melding whatever the governor proposes with a hopefully
improved offering from Silver and the Assembly.

Sekaran noted four crucial problems with Pataki's stance: the maintenance
of low weight limits for the top sentences; the lack of retroactive
sentencing reform; the fact that prosecutors would still control
eligibility for diversion to treatment (though judges could overrule that);
and the lack of increased treatment resources. On that point, she said,
"The Assembly has called for $100 million annually for treatment, but we
don't see a dime from Pataki."

Reformers' foremost concern is returning discretion to judges to both
determine sentencing and eligibility for treatment in lieu of
incarceration. Currently, prosecutors determine the charge and thus the
sentence. And, according to the governor's leak last week to The New York
Times on his likely revamped legislation, DAs would still determine
treatment eligibility, but defendants would retain the right of appeal and
judges could overrule prosecutors. But with many judges culled from the
ranks of prosecutors, the average street addict who's already cycled
through the system will have to stretch far for that eligibility brass ring.

His spokesperson maintains that Pataki's proposal boosts judicial
discretion by taking the decision regarding maximum time served away from
parole. Quartararo added that Pataki will call for cutting minimum
sentences in half. For instance, rather than the top sentence of 15 years
to life, the governor now wants 10 to 20 years; for class B felonies, which
currently range from four-and-a-half to nine years, Quartararo said Pataki
is proposing a flat sentence of four years.

Quartararo added that, despite the mistaken assertion in the Times, Pataki
would have treatment professionals deciding on client failure: "It won't
be, one or two strikes and you're out."

Judicial discretion absolutist Tamar Kraft-Stolar said, "It seems Pataki
moved a little bit." But she pointed to the many defendant circumstances
that still tie judges' hands, such as the presence of guns or involvement
of minors, or running a drug ring of more than three people. Then there's
also the need to prove drug dependency. Plus, offenders with more than one
prior felony conviction will be ineligible for diversion.

For its part, the DPA is particularly concerned about retroactivity for the
current 19,000 prisoners, the majority Class B offenders locked up for
selling or possession with intent to sell. Pataki's previous plan, Shadra
Sekaran noted, would consider some sort of sentence reduction for only
around 600 prisoners serving the longest sentences; that's less than 3
percent of the total.

Credico called for a "massive clemency" of those who've served five or six
years, a "general amnesty of a couple of thousand people." Even if the
Assembly bill passes, Credico said, "New York would go from having the
worst drug laws in the nation to having the worst drug laws in the nation."
Pataki's spokesperson, Caroline Quartararo, indicated the next few weeks
will determine if some sort of retroactive sentence reduction is still on
the table.

Of course, any provision regarding treatment will mean little if the slots
don't exist. Currently, press reports refer to addicts who engineer their
own arrests as the only route to treatment. Quartararo admitted that
additional funding needs to be discussed: "That's an issue we're working
on." Any negotiations should recognize estimates from the Legal Action
Center that sending second-time, nonviolent drug offenders to treatment
rather than prison could save a total of from $92 million to $222 million.

Finally, the much-ridiculed Pataki proposal to raise marijuana penalties
probably is little more than political posturing that gives him room to
maneuver. One Albany insider termed it "a de facto bargaining chip." The
DPA's Sekaran declared the marijuana provision illogical, unpopular and
nonsensical, adding, "I can only assume it won't require a big effort to
make it go away."

Credico called for "selfish" marijuana users to get involved in the overall
issue, theorizing that should the Rockefeller laws be changed, marijuana
reform might be next. He figured that Pataki's threat regarding marijuana
is "ludicrous given that both he and [Mike] Bloomberg have admitted using it."

As to the relative dearth of white, middle-class support for Drop the Rock
efforts, Sekaran said that marijuana users have been focused on the absurd
number of pot arrests in New York City under Rudy Guiliani, enforcement
that current mayor Michael Bloomberg has indicated will continue. Sekaran
noted that, "Rallies and advocacy have focused on the communities impacted.
It's no coincidence you see large numbers of African-Americans and Latinos
involved."