LOCALS DECRY ROCKEFELLER LAWS

ITHACA -- Local activists and lawmakers gathered on The Commons Thursday
afternoon to push for repeal of the New York state laws commonly known as
the Rockefeller Drug Laws.

Passed on May 8, 1973, the laws set mandatory minimum sentences for drug
crimes such as possessing four ounces or selling two ounces of cocaine,
which carries a 15 years to life minimum. They were followed during the
1980s with "second felony" laws, which mandate a prison sentence for anyone
convicted of more than one felony.

"Politicians have been talking about it every year," said Edie Reagan,
coordinator of the Justice and Peace Ministry for Catholic Charities and one
of the event's organizers. "They haven't really taken any kind of
substantive action."

Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, D-125th District, who represents Ithaca in the
state Legislature, told the crowd she supports reform efforts. A bill that
would affect 10,000 non-violent drug offenders has passed the Assembly,
Lifton said. She said Assembly members have not reached a compromise with
the Senate and the governor, whose proposals would affect about 500
prisoners.

"It is definitely racist in its application and it's way past time for
reform," Lifton said.

A major criticism of the laws is that they disproportionately affect African
Americans and Latinos. Tom Terrizzi, executive director of Prisoners' Legal
Services of New York, said those groups represent 93 percent of those in
prison for drug crimes in New York.

Terrizzi, who works out of the agency's Ithaca office, said that in 1980, 11
percent of New York prisoners were there on drug offenses. Today, he said,
the prison population has skyrocketed and 40 percent of prisoners are there
on non-violent drug charges.

Activist and Circle of Recovery founder Gino Bush said the laws are unfair
to poor people of color, who are often pushed into drug selling because they
have few economic options.

"If you folks have never been there, then you can't really envision what
it's like," he said.

Reached after the rally, Tompkins County District Attorney George Dentes
said proponents of change distort the impact of the laws.

"I think nobody who doesn't work in this business understands these laws,
because they are complicated," Dentes said. "They are not as draconian as
people say."

Dentes said New York's marijuana laws are among the nation's most lenient,
and that someone who gets a 15-year sentence for selling four ounces of
cocaine has done a lot of damage to his or her neighborhood.

"The second felony laws have the very beneficial impact of imposing some
amount of uniformity on sentencing," he added, saying two criminals with
similar histories and crimes could receive very different sentences without
the laws.

Other speakers at the rally included the Rev. Sonya Hicks of the Jesus Only
Apostolic Church, the Rev. Doug Green of the First Congregational Church,
Tompkins County Board of Representative Chairman Tim Joseph, Cornell
University government professor Mary Katzenstein and musician Hank Roberts,
who performed a song titled "Slave Trade in America."

Joseph said New York's drug laws are a result of cynical, slogan-based
politics.

"It has been a way to get elected in this state to say, 'I'm tough on crime,
I'm tough on drugs,'" Joseph said. "Tougher sentences, longer jail
sentences, hardly ever solve any kind of problem."