The Drop the Rock Campaign: "We Won't Stop, 'til we Drop the Rock!"

A powerful array of individuals and organizations throughout New York State is working vigorously on Drop the Rock, the state-wide campaign to repeal the Rockefeller Drug Laws. The two most remarkable aspects of this campaign are its diversity and its youth leadership. Young community activists, veteran criminal justice reformers, artists, intellectuals, students, former inmates, politicians, business executives, and religious, civic, and labor leaders of various ages, races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, geographical locations, religious beliefs and political proclivities are all a part of Drop the Rock. This broad-based alliance has organized three events: a Rockefeller Drug Law Forum, a Children's Lobby Day, and Drop the Rock Day--a day of education and action to repeal the Rockefeller Drug Laws.

The March 1st Rockefeller Drug Law Forum
The War on Drugs:
Its Impact on Individuals, Families, Communities, and the Nation

           On the night of March 1st, the Correctional Association, along with The New York Society for Ethical Culture, The Women's City Club, The Nation Institute, and The Center for Constitutional Rights sponsored a Rockefeller Drug Law forum. Held at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, the event was attended by over 400 people. The forum was co-moderatored by actor/activist Danny Glover and editor of The Nation Katrina van den Heuvel. The panel, distinguished and diverse, spoke eloquently and articulately about different aspects of the drug laws.
           The content of the forum ranged from the global context of the war on drugs, discussed by Michael Massing, author of The Fix, to the personal story of Elaine Bartlett who was incarcerated for 16 years under the drug laws on her first offense. Massing grappled with the inexplicable discrepancies within American drug policy: "that we are somehow going to deal with problems like addiction and abuse and the like by using defoliation tactics several thousand miles away just defies reason." Bartlett spoke about the dehumanizing and destructive impact that drugs and prisons have on all members of society, and the difficulty that former inmates have in obtaining the necessary educational, social, political, and economic resources to reintegrate productively into society. Lamenting the failure of the drug laws to rid communities of drugs and drug-related crime, Bartlett stated, "I came back home to a worse situation that I had 16 years ago....It saddens me because you have more drugs on the street than you had 16 years ago, they are cheaper...We have all been affected by these drugs."
           In keeping with the youth focus of Drop the Rock, Tasha Williams, a youth organizer from YouthForce, and youth leader Kate Rhee, Director of the Prison Moratorium Project, discussed various aspects of the laws. Williams examined the negative impact of the Rockefeller Drug Laws on society's young people, declaring that "The Rockefeller Drug Laws have imprisoned my community for decades." She also spoke about the financial gap between funding for prisons and funding for education. Rhee discussed the Drop the Rock campaign and reviewed effective strategies to fight for drug law repeal.
           Representing sectors of the religious community, Reverend Calvin Butts, President of the New York City Council of Churches, and The Most Reverend James F. McCarthy, Bishop of the Archdiocese of New York, participated in the forum. Reverend Butts spoke about the failure of the drug laws to ameliorate crime associated with the drug trade, and Bishop McCarthy discussed the impact of the drug trade on the Catholic community and the criminal justice statement of the Catholic Bishops which calls for reform. Bishop McCarthy ended his commentary with the remark that the drug laws are "hardly examples of laws that are God-like. It is time for a change."
           The social, economic and political atmosphere surrounding the drug laws was examined by Assemblymember Jeffrion Aubry, Bob Gangi, Executive Director of the Correctional Association, and Ron Daniels, Executive Director of The Center for Constitutional Rights. Assemblymember Aubry gave an analysis of the current political situation in Albany, the Governor's reform proposal and his own drug law repeal bill. He also explained how the drug laws have disproportionately given power to prosecutors and police while taking it away from judges: "The nature of Rockefeller has become one in which the police and prosecutors can pretty much arrest anybody, convict anybody, indict anybody in this room." Daniels spoke of the need to "invest in human beings" and provide every community with quality jobs and education as the way to transform society and deter crime. Gangi discussed the racist aspects of the drug laws, closing his remarks with the statement that "Prison expansion in New York State is a policy of institutionalized racism."

Children's Lobby Day
Tuesday, March 20th Albany, NY

           On March 20th, a group of 49 children ranging in age from eight to sixteen together with staff members and volunteers from the Incarcerated Mother's Program, Hour Children, the Women's Prison Association's Sara Powell Huntington House, JusticeWorks, The Osborne Association, and The Correctional Association, traveled to Albany to share with legislators and members of the press the impact that the drug laws and the imprisonment of their parents has had on them, their families, and their communities.
During a morning press conference, the children performed a step dance, read testimonials and presented a graffiti banner they had made which read, "In Our Voices/ Drop the Rock". Mia, a teenager from Hour Children, performed a song that she had written about the imprisonment of her mother. Laine Alston, Director of Children's Programs at the Incarcerated Mother's Program, closed the press conference with a short speech in which she explained that the children in Albany were representing not only themselves, but also the thousands of children across the nation who have gone through, and continue to go through, the painful, tumultuous experience of having their parents incarcerated.
           Following the press conference, the children had a series of meetings with legislators in which they shared their hurt, anger, and frustration surrounding the incarceration of their parents. Aishia, a 13 year-old from the Incarcerated Mother's Program, explained that "people fail to realize that even though the mother did the crime, their kids get punished with them…I want everyone to know that you are not only hurting the person incarcerated, you're also hurting their family. Couldn't there be an alternative to prison?" In all of their presentations the children were articulate, effective and affecting, impressing everyone who interacted with them. As reporter Felicia Lee wrote in her March 18th New York Times article about the Children's Lobby Day, "Critics of the old law hope that whatever bill is finally adopted takes into account these things that cannot be quantified: the broken families, the disrupted lives."

Drop the Rock Day:
A Day of Education and Action to Repeal the Rockefeller Drug Laws
Tuesday, March 27th Albany, NY

           Building on the momentum created by Children's Lobby Day, over 2,500 people traveled to Albany on March 27th for Drop the Rock Day. That morning, dozens of buses, vans and cars unloaded their passengers at Wilborn Temple for an orientation rally. Led by youth, the Drop the Rock participants then poured out of the Temple and onto the streets of Albany. Spanning over two city blocks, the nearly 3,000 people, varying in racial and ethnic identity, age, gender, religion and background, marched to the State Capitol. Taking their vocal lead from the youth at the front of the march, the marchers chanted such phrases as "Educate don't incarcerate!" and "We won't stop, 'til we Drop the Rock!"
           Like the Drop the Rock participants themselves, the rally at the capitol steps was dynamic and diverse. The young people set the tone for the rally at the steps of the Capitol Building with a guerilla theater skit in which they put the Rockefeller Drug Laws on trial and demanded their repeal. The rally was co-emceed by youth leaders Alejandro "Blu" Cantagallo of Prison Moratorium Project and Joann Hunt of YouthForce.
           Speakers ranged from Bishop Hubbard of the Archdiocese of New York who welcomed the Drop the Rock participants to Albany, to Assemblymember Jeffrion Aubry who spoke about the need for constituents to push their legislators to make repeal an urgent priority, to reporter and former Young Lord Felipe Luciano. Performances included a Drop the Rock rap done by Hip Hop artists Sister Asia and members of Wu-Tang Clan.
           One of the most impressive aspects of the rally was the power and clarity with which the voices of those formerly incarcerated under the drug laws were heard. At one point during her speech, Elaine Bartlett, a counselor at Project Renewal, questioned those that condone harsh mandatory sentencing, "Why would you rather lock us up like cattle than put us back into our communities?" Koretta McClendon, Project Associate for the Women in Prison Project at the Correctional Association, spoke eloquently about the injurious effect the drug laws have on women and the ability to find strength in numbers to change society. In his spoken word piece, Kenneth Johnson, a poet and counselor at The Osborne Association, educated the crowd about the unjust profitability of the drug laws: "This is about economics now, it's about making money. When the economy is down, in a small rural town…men from urban communities become commodities." Anthony Papa shared his experience of being incarcerated at Sing Sing for 12 years for his first drug offense and spoke of the urgency of action against the laws. "This is the critical time," Papa stated, "Now is when they are making the changes. What we're afraid of is that they will water it down." The rally closed with a recording of a poem by Nehemia Bey, who is currently incarcerated at Rikers Island. Bey explored the injustice and racism of the drug laws: "Scandalous how they target us/Neoplantations they build for us…How can the minority become the majority?/Is the other guy less criminal than me?/Hardly, and it ain't hard to see how Rocky targets me."
           Throughout the course of the day, over 400 Drop the Rock participants lobbied on behalf of drug law repeal. Although each of these groups brought a unique perspective to the issue, their message was the same: Governor Pataki's bill is a grave step backwards in the fight for a humane drug policy and, although the Assembly proposal takes significant steps toward meaningful reform, it falls far short of repeal. The lobby groups, 56 in all, met with over 200 State Senators and Assemblymembers, including Michael Boxley, Counsel to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Paul Messina, Senior Legislative Aide to Senate Majority Leader Bruno, Frank Nemeth, Legislative Aide to Assembly Majority Leader Paul Tokasz, Assmeblymember Joseph Lentol, Chair of the Assembly Codes Committee, Dan Conviser, Counsel to the Assembly Standing Committee on Codes, J.R. Drexilius, Counsel to Senate Codes Committee Chair Dale Volker, and staff from the office of Senator Michael Nozzolio, Chair of the Senate Committee on Crimes, Victims Crimes and Correction. Drop the Rock Day also received notable press coverage: it was the front page story in both the Albany Times Union and the Troy Record--the two main upstate newspapers--and made the evening news shows on three Albany networks.
           The day was an immense success, both in terms of making our message heard, and in terms of mobilizing people, building momentum, and strengthening the Drop the Rock movement. During the March 1st Forum, Katrina van den Heuvel, editor of The Nation, stated that "like the Vietnam War in the 1960s, in many ways, the drug war is really the war of our generation." Thus, similar to the anti-war movement which did not stop until American involvement in the Vietnam War was over and the lies, corruption, and deceit carried out by the United States government had been exposed, the Drop the Rock movement will not stop until the Rockefeller Drug Laws are repealed, and New York's racist, ineffective and inhumane prison expansion program is halted.