Drop the Rockefeller Drug Laws

The Rockefeller Drug Laws have destroyed thousands of Lower Manhattan families, skewed our law enforcement priorities, cost billions of dollars and utterly failed to address the crisis of drug use in our communities.

 

Thousands of children in this city are being raised in shelters or by foster homes, while the State spends $60,000 per year to imprison their non-violent parents. Sheldon Silver has failed to reform these laws. Indeed, he thwarted to only real chance at reform in 2004.

 

But all that pressure is meaningless in the face of Sheldon Silver's veto power over New York legislation. We must return discretion to New York's judges in sentencing non-violent drug offenders. For first offenders without intent to sell, treatment must be the preferred option.

 

Rockefeller drug laws are possibly most destructive piece of legislation on the books. Tens of thousands New Yorkers are serving multi-year sentences for non-violent drug offenses.  This is breaking up our families and destroying lives.

 

While a clear majority of New Yorkers have supported Rockefeller reform for many years, Sheldon Silver and Joe Bruno's culture of failure in Albany have consistently failed to bring change.

 

As your Assembly member, Paul Newell will fight to:

 

  • Repeal the Rockefeller Drug Laws - Non-violent drug use should be treated as a public health problem.  Long incarceration terms for possession have failed for decades.
  • End Differential Treatment for Cocaine - This clearly racist provision in our drug laws has dramatically longer sentences for some forms of cocaine than for others.
  • Stop Evicting Family Members from Public Housing - Hundreds of people a year - often senior citizens - are evicted from their homes in City housing because a member of their family was convicted of a non-violent drug felony.  This "corruption of the blood" is cruel enough under normal circumstances.  But in the midst of a housing crisis, these evictions are the real crime.
  • Treat Drug Use as a Public Health Issue - Non-violent drug users should be given treatment as a first resort.  This approach is not only more effective, but vastly less expensive.