Governor George E. Pataki
State Capitol
Albany, NY 12224
F: (518) 474-1513

Dear Governor Pataki,

I am writing to urge you to follow through on your pledge to dramatically change New York's mandatory drug laws by proposing comprehensive legislation that restores judicial discretion in all drug cases.

Your current proposal does not go far enough in restoring discretion to judges in drug cases. Under your plan, judges would have discretion only in cases where the defendant was able to prove that s/he was addicted and committed the crime because of her/his dependency--I believe that judges should also have discretion in cases involving non-addicted defendants.

Your proposal also calls for an automatic additional 5 year prison term--with no exceptions--for anyone convicted of carrying a gun during a drug transaction. This provision, blind and mechanical in its approach, represents all that is wrong-headed about mandatory sentencing and, as is virtually always the case with this kind of measure, will do nothing to achieve its intended purpose, namely the reduction of violence. I also disagree with the elimination of parole release for all non-violent felons. Finally, your plan does not provide enough increased funding for alternatives to incarceration alternatives such as drug treatment, job training and education so that judges have an appropriate place to send the offenders they decide should not be imprisoned.

A one-size-fits-all approach to sentencing does not work. Real criminal justice reform will not be accomplished unless the Rockefeller Drug Laws are repealed and judges' ability to make individual sentencing decisions is fully restored.

One of the most terrible aspects of the drug laws is the impact they have on poor communities of color: even though government studies show that the majority of people who use and sell drugs are white, African-Americans and Latinos make up about 92% of the drug offenders in State prisons.

I urge you to take the lead in repealing these ineffective, costly and racially biased laws.

Sincerely,