Word: patersons
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...Meanwhile, critics argued that they criminalized what was primarily a public health problem, incarcerated nonviolent felons who were better off in treatment, caused a jump in recidivism rates, and prevented judges from using discretion in sentencing. In January, during his State of the State address, New York Gov. David Paterson told his audience: "I can't think of a criminal justice strategy that has been more unsuccessful than the Rockefeller Drug Laws...
...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 penalties for marijuana posession. But despite...
Some critics, however, felt the new act did not go far enough to reverse the damage they felt the original laws had done. Even Paterson, who had 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...
Under his predecessor, Gov. Eliot Spitzer, Paterson and his colleagues began to work on new legislation that would 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...
...offender who has committed prior violent felonies." Green cited statistics that showed the state's drug incarceration rate dropping to about 11,000 last year as a result of the 2004 reforms and says it's even a misnomer to call the current statutes Rockefeller Laws at all. Paterson believes, however, the reforms are a way to reduce both incarceration and recidivism, and ultimately make the system work correctly - and more cheaply. "We will save, shortly, in the hundreds of millions of dollars over this shift," he notes. "Also we'll cure more people. And then you can't calculate...