Woman Jailed Under Drug Law Freed

Controversial 1973 Rockefeller Law Has Many Detractors
Today

NEW YORK - Lisa Oberg couldn't stop touching her mother - hugging her,
kissing her, grabbing her hand. And for the first time in her 11-year
life, she didn't have to.

Gone were the days of sporadic visits with Arlene Oberg, who had been
serving a 15-year-to-life prison sentence for a 1988 drug arrest and
subsequent conviction. No more motherhood by correspondence, through
letters and phone calls.

On Wednesday, Oberg and two other women were freed from the Bedford
Hills Correctional Facility after winning clemency from Gov. George
Pataki last month.

"I felt so happy. She looked so pretty," said Lisa, who was born on
Rikers Island months after her mother was arrested. She has been
raised by her grandmother in Brooklyn.

"This means my life could start to be normal, because I've never had a
normal life," Lisa said. "My mother's here and I don't have to lie
about where she is anymore."

Oberg, Elaine Bartlett, and Jan Warren had all been sentenced under
the state's controversial Rockefeller drug law, which requires
sentences of at least 15 years to life for possession of even
relatively small amounts of hard drugs.

Oberg, 33, had been arrested in 1988 after assisting in four cocaine
sales. The last one was for eight ounces of the drug.

"It doesn't work," she said of the Rockefeller law. "You have too many
people who have minimal roles, and the people who are making the
profit and stand to make the most gain are out there, business as usual."

Opponents of the law, named for former Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, note
that it's the nation's harshest penalty for drug use or possession.
They have called repeatedly for lawmakers to reconsider it.

Advocates for easing the penalties include the state's chief judge,
Judith Kaye; Cardinal John O'Connor and the state's Roman Catholic
bishops; and a coalition which includes some of the same state
legislators who voted in 1973 to institute the statutes. Even Laurence
Rockefeller has come out in favor of reform, saying his brother would
have recognized the inequities and failures of the law had he lived
long enough.

"It's the most unjust law enacted in the Legislature in my time," said
Jerome W. Marks, a retired Supreme Court judge. He said the law
excessively punishes those involved in the lower levels of the drug
trade, rather than those who make the money and direct the flow of
illegal substances.

While the law's effect on drug trafficking is debatable, one thing is
sure: it has significantly contributed to the surge in New York's
prison population. In 1973, there were 14,700 inmates in 18 state
prisons; in 1999, there were more than 70,000 inmates in 70 prisons.
About one-third were jailed on drug crimes.

Bartlett, one of the two women released along with Oberg, was
sentenced to 20 years to life in prison after being arrested as a
26-year-old for bringing four ounces of cocaine to Albany. She is now
42, and the drug possession charge was her first offense.

The mother of four said she had never even gotten a parking ticket
before, but her good record had no impact on her sentence.

"The Rockefeller drug laws are ridiculous," she said. "People are
rotting away in jail for nothing."

Her son, Apache, 22, agreed.

"You don't have to be a person with a soft heart to see that you don't
do 20 to life for a first-time offense, and for a small amount of
drugs," he said. "Let the judges do their jobs."