  |
February/March 2005
Regarding the Recent Reform to the Rockefeller Drug Laws
Don’t Be Fooled by the Tinkering
Sandy
Bernabei, LMSW, CASAC, Chair, NASW-NYC Undoing Racism Project
I was asked to update this article first published in Currents one year ago. Unfortunately, it did not take long to do, since the effort to reform the 1973 New York State Rockefeller Drug Laws was not much more than a tinkering that might serve to distract New Yorkers from the movement for real change. Sentencing was reduced from 15 years to life, to, 8 to 20 years for the sale of two ounces or possession of eight ounces of cocaine. Penalties apply without regard to the circumstances surrounding the offense. Big drug dealers avoid possession penalties because urban poverty and addiction provide a never-ending supply of desperate people who will sell drugs for them. In contrast, violent crimes such as rape, assault, robbery and first degree manslaughter receive 5 to 25 year sentences.
Out of the 18,000 New York State prisoners, the reform will retroactively
affect approximately 446 people who can petition the courts for re-sentencing.
Prosecution uniquely remains with district attorneys rather than with
judges. In every other crime, judges may use their discretion in sentencing.
NYC Loses Electoral Power
New York has transferred over 18,000 drug offenders from its inner cities
to prisons in upstate areas. Traveling along with them is government funding
and electoral influence. The majority of those incarcerated are non-violent
offenders; over 13,000 are from NYC. Since 1982, 38 prisons
were built in upstate counties at a cost of about $2 billion and an annual
maintenance cost of $700 million per prison. The US census bureau records
these transplanted inmates as residents of the area in which the prisons
are located and not as residents in areas where their families still reside.
As felons, they are unable to vote while incarcerated or on parole.
Prisons or Higher Education?
The Rockefeller laws drain resources from community services and education.
From 1988 to 1998, the State increased prison spending by $761 million
and decreased annual spending in New York State and City universities
by approximately $615 million. This effectively shifted state funding
from education to prisons and precipitated tuition hikes making public
education unaffordable for many low-income students. In 1997, more African
Americans and Latinos entered prison on drug convictions than graduated
from state universities.
Racial Disparity
The majority of those who use and sell drugs are white; yet, African Americans
and Latinos comprise about 94% of drug offenders in state prisons. Discrete
narcotic use among whites most often happens behind closed doors. In contrast,
drug use within communities of color often occurs in public spaces. Thus,
law enforcement efforts are concentrated in communities such as Central
Harlem, Spanish Harlem, Washington Heights, South Bronx, Bedford Stuyvesant,
Brownsville, East New York, Queens and South Jamaica. Some suggest that
justice is readily available, but only at a steep price not affordable
to all.
Treatment or Incarceration?
It costs about $32,000 per year to incarcerate a male inmate and about
$64,000 annually to confine a woman. Inmates are parents to approximately
80,000 children. The cost of keeping a child in foster care is $20,000
to $55,000 a year. In comparison, most drug-free outpatient care programs’
annual costs are in the range of $4,500 and up to $21,000 for inpatient
care. Drug treatment is 15 times more successful than mandatory minimum
sentencing in fighting drug abuse, reducing recidivism, and supporting
stable and productive lives. No additional funding was provided for
alternatives to incarceration in this recent reform.
Social Workers Pick Up the Pieces
Many professional social workers have clients who are incarcerated and
thereby separated from their families. Social workers counsel the children
who are placed in foster homes when parents are incarcerated. It is the
social workers that often pick up the pieces and help individuals learn
to lead productive lives.
Social workers offer a critical “inside” perspective on these
issues. The voices of social workers can convey the serious negative impact
to children, families, communities and society at large of laws meant
to deter drug abuse. The intended or unintended effect of the laws, however,
is to imprison people of color at a disproportionate rate, remove voting
power from low-income communities, and to allow prison construction to
become a fast-growing industry that costs taxpayers much more than was
ever intended.
A Matter of Justice
Growth in public support for reform has encouraged some prosecutors to
divert low-level, non-violent offenders to treatment alternatives, which
has resulted in limited legislation allowing for reduced sentences. These
changes benefit few while thousands remain unaffected. A call for
a full repeal would:
• Restore sentencing discretion to trial judges
• Make reform retroactive
• Expand funding for alternatives to incarnation
• Significantly reduce sentence lengths
We incarcerate more people today than South Africa did at the height of
apartheid. Symbiotic relationships exist between punishment, profit and
politics. This is a call to action. Now is the time to address this crisis
with action for justice and equity.
There is No Social Justice without Social Action
How is it that a nation legally committed to equal opportunity for all—
regardless of race, creed, national origin, or gender—continually
reproduces patterns of racial inequality? Social work for social justice
is dependent upon an assessment of the structural inequalities in society
that result in differential access to and distribution of power (economic,
political, social, cultural) for different groups of people. The elimination
of structural inequalities, the establishment of policies to ensure equity
and accountability to people of color, defines social work practice for
social justice.
There is no social justice without social action. Go to www.droptherock.org,
the primary information source for this article. The full repeal of the
Rockefeller Drug Laws means working for a more humane and compassionate
New York.