Assemblyman Sheldon Silver
62nd Assembly District
LOB 932
Albany, NY 12248

Dear Speaker Silver:

We write to support your efforts to secure meaningful reform to New York's drug laws. For the past quarter of a century, these laws have inflicted disproportionately severe sentences on drug offenders, imposed unwarranted restrictions on judicial sentencing discretion, and filled New York's prisons with low level offenders - almost all from minority communities. The mandatory prison sentences for these offenders all too frequently are inconsistent with respect for basic human rights, as we document in detail in our 1997 report, "Cruel and Usual: Disproportionate Sentences for New York Drug Offenders."

- Create more proportionate prison sentences for all drug offenders;

- Increase funding for prison-based and community-based substance abuse
treatment programs;

- Restore to a significant extent judicial sentencing discretion; and

- Increase the diversion of offenders from prison to substance abuse treatment
programs.

We have four principal criticisms of bill as currently drafted: 1) a mandatory minimum sentencing structure is retained, albeit in modified form; 2) the mandatory minimum prison terms remain too high; 3) offenders with a prior violent felony at any point in their past are arbitrarily and unreasonably excluded from the sentencing reforms; and 4) there is no provision for alternatives to incarceration such as community-based sanctions for minor drug offenders who are not addicted.

We comment at greater length on some of the Drug Law Reform Act's sentencing provisions in the attached memorandum. We want to mention here, however, that we are also concerned about the dangers of excessive reliance on coerced treatment through court orders as a way of addressing substance abuse. We are troubled by the threat of mandatory prison sentences for substance abusing offenders who go into court ordered treatment programs if those programs fail to assist them recover from their addiction or if the recovery process proves to be long, difficult and marked by temporary relapses.

Reform of the Rockefeller drug laws is long overdue. We urge New York's legislators to put an end to a quarter of a century of misguided and destructive drug laws and to enact legislation that restores sentencing discretion to judges, reduces the incarceration of low-level drug offenders and eliminates disproportionately severe sentences that violate human rights.

We would welcome the opportunity to discuss our views of the Drug Law Reform Act with you. In the meantime, we encourage and support your efforts to restore fairness and common sense to the sentencing of drug offenders.

Sincerely,