Like most critics of the Rockefeller drug laws, we were heartened by your announced intention early this year to seek dramatic and comprehensive changes to these misguided mandatory sentencing laws.
Your decision to press for changes in the Rockefeller drug laws had the welcome effect of jumpstarting the stalled reform debate in Albany. Unfortunately, the actual reforms you have proposed in the "Felony Drug Law Reform Act" (FDLRA), introduced at your request in the Senate, are too few and too minor.
The FDLRA retains many of the worst features of the Rockefeller laws: it keeps a structure of mandatory prison sentences; leaves low-level nonviolent offenders vulnerable to excessive sentences; and maintains the undue power of prosecutors over sentencing and diversion decisions. It creates new offenses subject to mandatory sentence provisions and arbitrarily increases sentences for certain predicate offenders. Diversion to substance abuse treatment programs is limited and there is no provision for sentences to community-based sanctions. According to an analysis by the Legal Action Center, only a few hundred persons would become eligible for a non-incarceration sentence under your proposed reforms. It is also notable that the proposed legislation also fails to provide any increased funding for drug treatment and alternatives to incarceration programs. A more detailed critique of some of the key sentencing aspects of the FDLRA is attached.
New York needs drug sentencing legislation that will dramatically reduce the imposition of prison sentences on low-level drug offenders - whether buyers, users or sellers, whether first-time or repeat offenders. Prison should be reserved for serious, dangerous offenders. Judges and prosecutors must also be returned to their proper roles in the criminal justice system: prosecutors should seek to protect the community by securing convictions of the guilty; impartial judges should have the sole discretion to determine the punishment that fits the crime. State laws should also should encourage - and fund - the increased use of alternatives to incarceration - whether substance abuse treatment programs or community-based sanctions - for low level offenders who pose no appreciable threat to public safety.
The FDLRA is so seriously flawed, in our judgment, that it should be abandoned. We urge you to work with state legislators to develop and adopt legislation that will bring to New York the sensible and fair sentencing of drug offenders that the state has long lacked.
Sincerely,
Jamie Fellner
Associate Counsel
