Word: drugged
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...effect of the new sentencing guidelines has been dramatic. Drug offenders as a percentage of New York's prison population surged from 11% in 1973 to a peak of 35% in 1994, according to the state's Corrections Department. The surge was mostly a result of convictions for "nonviolent, low-level drug possession and drug sales" Paterson told TIME, "people who were addicted and were selling to try to maintain their habits." According to Paterson, just 16% had a history of violence. "And so really," he says, "you're shipping off a generation." In 1979, the laws were amended, reducing...
...1980s, the war on drugs was in full swing, as the crack epidemic threatened to overwhelm American cities' criminal justice systems. Drug crimes had become increasingly violent, prompting calls for even stricter mandatory minimum sentencing laws. In 1986, the Reagan Administration passed a law requiring federal judges to give fixed sentences to drug offenders based on variables including the amount seized and the presence of firearms...
...lumped in with narcotics kingpins and unfairly left at the mercy of the penal system. Celebrities including hip hop mogul Russell Simmons and actors Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon lobbied for the cause. In 2004, prompted by increasing pressure from activists and legislators, then-Gov. George Pataki signed the Drug Law Reform Act, a move that significantly changed the Rockefeller laws' sentencing guidelines. The harshest mandatory minimum was relaxed to 8 to 20 years and those convicted of serious offenses were allowed to apply for lighter sentences. (Read "The Wire's War on the Drug...
...served as a State Senator representing Harlem during the height of the crack epidemic, says he felt the legislation "didn't make any kind of difference." He noted a serious racial disparity to the effect of the laws. "Ninety-two percent of the inmates in these facilities on drug crimes were black and Hispanic, while the [proportion of the overall] population was 32 percent." Read "Another By-Product of the Recession: Ex-Convicts...
...replace punishment with treatment where needed, even in the case of some first offenders who pled guilty. The result was an agreement on March 25 between Paterson and state legislators on a bill that would give judges more discretion in sentencing by eliminating mandatory minimums for some higher-level drug offenders and making lower level offenders eligible for treatment...