Acknowledgements

This report was co-authored by Issa Kohler-Hausmann, a research fellow at Georgetown Law Center and PhD candidate at New York University and consultant to Human Rights Watch for this project, and Jamie Fellner, senior advisor in the US Program at Human Rights Watch. It is based primarily on analyses conducted by Ms. Kohler-Hausmann of data provided to her by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. Brian Root, quantitative analyst in the US Program, reviewed the statistics and, along with Grace Choi, publications director, helped develop their graphic presentation.

This paper was edited by Maria McFarland, acting director of the US Program and Danielle Haas, senior editor in the Program Department. Aisling Reidy provided legal review. Production assistance was provided by Samantha Reiser, associate in the US Program. Layout, graphics, and production were undertaken by Anna Lopriore, creative outreach manager, Ivy Shen, multimedia production associate, Grace Choi, publications director, and Fitzroy Hepkins, mail manager for Human Rights Watch.

We are grateful to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services for their assistance in providing aggregate data for 2003-04 marijuana possession arrests and other assistance. The analysis, opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not those of DCJS. We are indebted to Harry Levine, Department of Sociology, Queens College, City University of New York for his pioneering analysis of NYC marijuana arrests and his encouragement of this project. We also thank Amanda Geller, associate research scientist at Columbia University School of Social Work, Scott Levy, Bronx Defenders, David Greenberg, Department of Sociology, New York University, David Cole, Georgetown University Law Center, Christopher Weiss, Department of Sociology, New York University, and Andrew Golub, National Development and Research Institute for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this report.