NYCLU to Announce New Findings about Statewide Impact of Rockefeller Drug Laws

On Wednesday, March 11, the New York Civil Liberties Union released a detailed report analyzing the effects of the Rockefeller Drug Laws on New York State. The report studies incarceration patterns in terms of their economic and social impact on the entire state, as well as on its biggest cities: Albany, Buffalo, New York City, Rochester and Syracuse.

The report — The Rockefeller Drug Laws: Unjust, Irrational, Ineffective — presents overwhelming evidence that New York’s mandatory minimum drug sentencing scheme has failed on all fronts. The laws have not made New York State safer, nor have they reduced the availability of drugs or deterred their use.

It also presents provocative new maps created by the Justice Mapping Center that analyze every major urban center in the state, illustrating who goes to prison for drug offenses, where they lived before imprisonment and what it costs to lock them up.

The NYCLU will hold a media briefing in Albany to walk journalists through the report’s findings and recommendations for reform. Reporters statewide are invited to call a toll-free number to listen and ask questions.

What:
Media briefing about new report, The Rockefeller Drug Laws: Unjust, Irrational, Ineffective

When:
11 a.m. Wednesday, March 11

Where:
Marsh, Wassermann McHugh, 677 Broadway, Albany. Free garage parking.

OR 1-800-351-6809, passcode 63087

Who:

• Robert Perry, NYCLU legislative director and author of the report
• Jeff Aubry, Assembly Member, chair of Committee on Correction and lead sponsor of just passed Rockefeller reform legislation
• John Dunne, Republican New York State senator from 1966 to 1989 and original sponsor of the Rockefeller Drug Laws
• Eric Cadora, director of the Justice Mapping Center and creator of drug incarceration maps of Albany, Buffalo, New York City, Rochester, Syracuse and New York State
• Marsha Weissman, executive director of the Center for Community Alternatives
• Todd Clear, professor of criminal justice at John Jay College
• Dr. Ruth Finkelstein, vice president of health policy for the New York Academy of Medicine