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AP Photo/Mary Altaffer
Critics have long argued that the laws put a disproportionate number of minorities behind bars for years for minor offenses, turning low-level offenders and users into career criminals. The revisions signed into law by Governor Paterson in April give judges discretion to place addicted first-time drug offenders into alcohol and substance abuse treatment, and makes treatment available to the non-violent addicted offenders who commit a range of other crimes.
As the bill was poised to pass the Senate, Paterson told reporters, "Drug abuse is an illness and more and more over the years we're finding that it's a treatable illness." New York Legal Aid Society attorney Bill Givney tells the Associate Press lawyers have about 270 possible New York City cases out of some 1,100 statewide identified by prison officials.
"Fun" fact: According a corrections spokeswoman, New York's prisons had 59,053 inmates Wednesday, with another 708 at the Willard Drug Treatment Center and 80 at a residential treatment facility for parole violators,.
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Good Idea, Bad Timing.
It's not easy to bring convicted minor drug dealers back into society with very high unemployment rates.
"Drug abuse is an illness and more and more over the years we're finding that it's a treatable illness."
That knife wound or bump on my head after being mugged by an addict is also treatable.
www.forgotten-ny.com
"disproportionate number of minorities behind bars "
I think it's proportionate to something. Just not when convenient to those who are arguing its disproportions.
Yay! This is awesome, I can't wait for them to spring all these victims. They won't use or sell anymore drugs, and don't be fooled by any stats: There is no corelation between the drug trade and violence.
Please!
Hey lady in the picture: Get a life!
Sarcasm doesn't work when written. Guess you're just going to have to be a little more transparent when being a snarky little fucker.
"Drug abuse is an illness and more and more over the years we're finding that it's a treatable illness."
How about Mortgage Fraud, War Crimes, Securities Scams, Constitutional Violations and Legalized Torture; are THEY 'treatable diseases'?
I didn't think so.
if one good thing comes from this shitty economy, rethinking drug law is fantastic. we have by far the highest incarceration rate in the world. a major component of this, "the war on drugs", is morally defunct and we can't continue borrowing china-bucks to support laws which unjustly keep citizens in prison, which are increasingly privately run.
if you don't think law enforcement and corrections departments are special interests, think again.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/world/americas/23iht-23prison.12253738.html
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/journals/259/prison-privatization.htm
An idea whose time is long overdue. The Rockefeller Laws were Draconian and unjust. A person (particularly a person of color) could be locked up just for being a passenger in the same car as someone who had drugs on them, even if that person didn't know it at the time. Also, the laws were much more lenient towards cocaine users and dealers vs. crack-cocaine users and dealers, and guess which demographic falls into each category.
It's good that judges may give first time drug law offenders treatment as opposed to jail time.
I do not agree with of sending repeat offenders or those who committed violent crimes to be sent to treatment just because they are 'addicts'.
Habitual drug use is a choice made by the weak, not an addiction. People need to be held accountable no matter how weak they may be.
The only treatment they should be eligible to receive should take place in prison.
And as far as demographics, I wonder what the breakdown for violent crimes is? After all violent crimes aren't a cultural phenomenon, but rather a result of poor parenting.
so glad to see this finally coming to pass!
I've always been a fan of Escape From New York, the only difference now is we get to live with the criminals.
lets rethink drug laws.
low level sellers and minorities/poor customers usually have to deal with street small level corner ghetto sales.
yuppies and hipsters call a delivery service and pay higher prices, making surveillance difficult and no appearance of street disorder in brownstone neighborhoods.
many people also have been pinched by informants and stings, while you might not feel sympathy for some down on his luck guy who transports drugs or arranges a sale to a narc or snitch, do you sympathize with the college kid who is asked in the parking lot of a dead show which way to the guy selling acid? the guy could be a straight A student clean and sober, but the act of pointing in some hippies direction means your part of a some criminal enterprise and subject to minimum sentencing.
How long before the first releasee was rearrested?