On March 27^th, members of the NYCLU Nassau Chapter were lucky enough to attended Drop the Rock’s Advocacy Day in Albany.  Drop the Rock is a campaign that advocates for the repeal of the Rockefeller Drug Laws.  These laws, passed in 1963, impose some of the harshest penalties on drug offenders in the country.  In addition to being draconian, they cost New York State $500,000 million dollars a year and keep mainly non-violent offenders and addicts in prison for years (of the 13,000 inmates, over 80% have no violence in their records). 

ED Tara Keenan-Thomson, Case Worker Melissa Scannell, intern Rachel Collins, Board member Herb Williams and Board member Susan Goettehrer, along with her son Zachary all made the journey to the state’s capital.  We were joined by 20 other Nassau residents and met up with close to 200 concerned New Yorkers at the historic Wilbourne Temple.   The crowd was treated to speeches from Albany’s pro-repeal District Attorney David Soares, pro-repeal NY Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry and the executive director of the Correctional Association of New York Bob Gangi.

After lunch, attendees split into their lobby groups and walked to the Legislative Building.  Each group got thirty minutes each to lobby three different assembly members or state senators.  Our goal was to explain to our law makers exactly why the Rockefeller drug laws are inefficient (incarceration is an effective means of intervening in the social and economic problems that drive drug crimes), wasteful (it costs $500 million dollars a year to incarcerate drug offenders), unjust (guilt is not based on the role in the transaction, but on an arbitrary weight of drugs) and racially biased (over 90% of Rockefeller offenders are Black or Latino).  We tried to get as many of them as possible to pledge to support repeal of the laws, to make that repeal retroactive and to make alternatives to incarceration programs more readily available.  Retroactivity is crucial for protecting the rights of the 13,000 people currently serving time under these laws. Alternatives to incarceration programs, which in include drug counseling, educational and vocational components, have been shown to be more effective in curbing drug problems and help offenders to become rehabilitated members of society. 

Overall, this day was a great success.  These laws are 35 years old, and there is still a drug problem in New York. The moderate reforms that were made in 2005 were futile, since more people were locked up under Rockefeller in 2006 and 2007 than in the years directly preceding the “reforms.”  It is time to “Drop the Rock” and Advocacy Day 2008 was a great step forward in that movement.  NYCLU Nassau was proud to have played a part.

For more information on how to become involved in the repeal campaign, visit the Coalition for Real Reform.