The Rockefeller Drug Law by Steven Wishnia

Franz Lehman died protesting what, ironically, is one of New York State’s largest programs for housing poor people of color.

Almost one-third of the state’s 71,000 prisoners are jailed under the harsh mandatory minimums of the "Rockefeller drug laws," enacted in 1973 when Nelson Rockefeller was governor. A stunning 94% of them are black or Latino. The laws are best known for their 15-years-to-life mandatory sentences for possession of four ounces or more of heroin or cocaine - more than the state requires for rape, manslaughter or assaulting a police officer with a weapon. However, about 60% of the state’s drug prisoners were convicted of low-level sales or possession. Half a gram of cocaine, about $25 worth, gets a one-year minimum. The related Second Felony Offender Law mandates 4-1/2 to nine years for a second offender selling as little as $10 worth of cocaine or heroin.

According to Human Rights Watch lawyer Jamie Fellner, most of the 600-odd prisoners serving the 15-to-life maximum are couriers, mules and other peripheral-to-the-deal figures. "There are no big dealers in prison," former state prison commissioner Peter Preiser told an Albany forum in early 1999.

The Rockefeller laws, said Assemblymember Jeffrion Aubry (D-Queens) last year, have neither been "effective for individuals nor cost-effective for the public." Since they were enacted, the state’s prison population has increased almost sixfold. They completely failed to prevent the spread of crack in the ‘80s, and heroin and cocaine prices have both dropped dramatically since 1973.

For more information on the Campaign to End the Rockefeller Drug Laws, contact: Lower East Side Call For Justice, phone and fax: (212) 964-9681; e-mail: lescfj@cs.com; or Justice Works Community, 1012 Eighth Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11215; phone: (718) 499-6704, fax: (718) 832-2832, e-mail: justiceworks@msn.com .