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For Immediate Release: Wednesday, June1,
2004.
Contact: Robb Smith, ARISE Media Chair,
518-283-8398
ARISE Clergy Demonstrate
Support for Real Reform of NYS Drug Laws
Albany, NY (June 1, 2004)—Members
of the ARISE Clergy Caucus, ARISE Justice/Economic
Opportunity Task Force and the Interfaith Alliance
of New York State demonstrated their support today
for real reform of New York’s Drug Laws.
Carrying signs proclaiming the
need for real reform, treatment, jobs, housing,
reduction of sentence length, and restoration
of judicial discretion, ARISE members walked from
Westminster Church to the Legislative Office Building
and into the hearing room where the Senate and
Assembly are meeting in a joint conference committee
to address Drug Law reform.
 “We
have to remember the devastating impact these
drug laws have had on our inner cities,”
says The Rev. Joyce Hartwell, ARISE Albany Vice
President and Chair of the ARISE Justice/Economic
Opportunity Task Force. “These laws are destroying
whole communities and draining millions of dollars
away from real economic development. We need to
replace these destructive laws with reasonable
sentences and an emphasis on treatment, jobs and
housing for those caught up in the horrors of
poverty and chemical dependence.”
Dr. Bernard Fleishman, Chairman
of the Interfaith Alliance of New York State,
has reform of the Rockefeller Drug Laws high on
its agenda. “The current situation represents
an appalling waste of human potential and of the
public money. Instead of reforming individuals,
it maintains a system that is more likely to create
hardened criminals,” he says. “Wide
research has shown that when it comes to rehabilitation
of offenders, treatment is much more effective
then incarceration.”
Last year, ARISE made reform
of the Rockefeller Drug Laws one of the top three
issues and this year once again voted to make
issues of crime, justice reform and economic opportunity
a priority.
The ARISE Justice/Economic Opportunity
Task Force supports sentencing discretion for
trial judges, reduction of sentence length, retroactive
sentence reduction, and more funding of treatment
and prison alternatives. In addition, the task
force wants to replace prison-based economic development
with investments that deliver improved economic
opportunities both for the inner-city neighborhoods
devastated by the current drug laws and for the
communities that depend on a prison economy for
their prosperity.
ARISE is part of the Thruway
Alliance, which includes two sister organizations--ACT
Syracuse and VOICE Buffalo--both of which support
real reform of the Rockefeller Drug Laws.
ARISE (A Regional Initiative
Supporting Empowerment) is an organization of
more than 30 allied faith communities and community
groups in the four-county Capital Region representing
more than 12,000 persons. The purpose of ARISE
is to strengthen community and build leaders in
member organizations, mobilize people of faith
and conscience to be leaders in reshaping public
policy, empower economically distressed and politically
marginalized people, and to unite suburbs and
cities in an agenda for shared prosperity and
social justice.
# # #
Photo caption: The Rev. Joyce
Hartwell, Albany Regional Vice President of ARISE
(2nd from left) is chair of the ARISE Justice/Economic
Opportunitiy Task Force and a member of the ARISE
Clergy Caucus. To her right are ARISE President
Deb Baumes and ARISE Executive Vice President
The Rev. Dr. Van Stuart. Here they are joined
by other sign-carrying members ARISE, the Interfaith
Alliance of New York State, and the ARISE Clergy
Caucus. Signs also show support from ARISE’s
sister members of the Thruway Alliance--VOICE
Buffalo and ACT Syracuse.
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