ROCKEFELLER DRUG LAWS GIVE SANCTUARY TO RACISM

In New York state, the laws regarding the possession and sales of
controlled substances are commonly called the Rockefeller drug laws,
named after Nelson Rockefeller. They are considered to be the basis
for most, if not all, zero-tolerance laws surrounding controlled substances.

The Rockefeller drug laws have strict guidelines when it comes to
sentencing of any person found guilty of possession or sale of drugs.
Referred to as mandatory minimum sentences, they tie the hands of
judges in sentencing, taking away any semblance of judiciary
discretion with regards to the context of the crime.

While on the surface this may sound like a decent idea, setting in
stone the minimum sentence a person must have if they commit this act,
in reality mandatory minimum sentencing is a racist
institution.

In New York state, more than 93 percent of people incarcerated for
drug offenses are African-American or Latino. This statistic is in
direct violation of numerous surveys, one of which being the 1998
Health and Human Services National Household Survey, that show that
the majority of drug users are actually not black, or Latino, but white.

While one could chalk this up to increased police presence in
prominently black and Latino "troubled" communities, the racism
blatantly written in the laws cannot be rationalized in such a way.

There is not a large inherent difference in powdered and crack
cocaine, chemically speaking, simply in the delivery mechanism. Crack
cocaine, whose users are predominantly black, has a 5 gram procession
to necessitate a 15-year minimum sentence. Powdered cocaine, whose
users are predominantly white, requires 100 times as much narcotic to
have the same minimum sentence attached to a possession charge.

Instead of locking people up for long periods of time for a
non-violent crime, and sustaining the so-call "revolving door" system
we currently have, we should treat drug abuse. Straighten out the
lives of those who need help, those who are not "criminally insane,"
those who did not commit any violent crime.

Not only is this the morally correct thing to be doing, but in a time
of tight governmental budgets, drug rehabilitation vs. incarceration
would save the taxpayers a lot of money. Using an out-patient
rehabilitation system, we could save more the $29,000 per inmate, per
year.

And that amount is not taking into account that rehabilitation would
not last the duration of the life sentences some inmate are serving
for these possession charges.