PROTESTERS: DRUG LAWS HURTING MINORITIES

Village of Hempstead officials teamed up with churches, civic
activists and educators yesterday to call for the repeal of New
York's Rockefeller drug laws.

The Rev. Sedgwick Easley, of Union Baptist Church in Hempstead, said
the laws have hurt minority communities such as Hempstead, which
recently has seen a spike in crime related to turf wars between youths.

The laws, though well intended, have kept many minority men in prison
for too long, leaving their children fatherless and creating a cycle
of violence, activists said. "We're here to hold politicians' feet to
the fire," Easley said at a meeting of more than 100 at the church.

"The drug laws affect this community," Easley said, "because the drug
laws discriminate against people of color and this is a community of color."

The meeting was the first in a series of crime prevention forums
organized by Village of Hempstead Mayor Wayne Hall.

The drug laws were passed in 1973 in response to a heroin epidemic
and named after then-Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. The laws imposed
minimum sentences of 15 years to life for those convicted of
possessing more than 2 ounces of heroin or cocaine.

Hall said the laws should be changed to put more offenders into
community-based rehab programs. The current system has destroyed
families and misplaced resources, he said.

Supporters of the laws contend that incarcerating drug dealers for
long periods takes them out of communities and allows neighborhoods
to be rebuilt.

More than 90 percent of the prisoners behind bars under the
Rockefeller statutes are minorities, according to The Correctional
Association of New York, a group advocating changes.

After steady criticism, the minimum sentences for the most serious
felony drug offenses were lowered by the State Legislature, but drug
treatment advocates say the changes weren't enough.