A state commission has recommended revising New York's drug laws to favor rehab for low-level offenders and give judges more discretion in sentencing convicts, but many lawmakers say the commission's report falls short. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver called it a "missed opportunity" in a letter to commission Chairwoman Denise O’Donnell:
The Commission held in its hands a unique opportunity to help undo thirty-five years of failed drug policy and set New York on the path to establishing a more just, more humane and more effective approach to combat drug crime and drug abuse. I am saddened that it failed to do so.
More than 35 years after they were enacted, it is clear that the Rockefeller laws have failed to combat drug abuse or effectively impact the incidence of violent crime across New York State. Rather, they have succeeded in imprisoning tens of thousands of low-level non-violent offenders, who are predominantly African-American and Latino, with no history of committing violent crimes at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars to taxpayers.
By restoring to judges their discretion not to mandate a prison sentence when they deem it inappropriate, non-violent drug offenders and taxpayers will be better served by driving resources toward strategies that have been proven far more effective at combating substance abuse and the street level crime associated with it.
O’Donnell, who is Governor Paterson's top public safety aide, said the report was "merely a blueprint" for legislative action, which is expected to begin now. According to the Times, Paterson has "dispatched senior members of his staff to work with leading lawmakers to draft legislation." State Senator Eric Schneiderman, a Democrat representing Manhattan and the Bronx, tells Newsday, "The governor is serious, and the Assembly is serious, and I can assure you we're serious."
