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For Immediate Release: Wednesday, July
14, 2004.
Contact: Tony Newman (212) 613-8026; Elizabeth
Mendez Berry (212) 613-8036
Albany Legislators Reconvene
July 20th and 21st for Rockefeller Talks
Reform Advocates Turn up the
Heat: Over Next 10 Days, Ads, Actions in Albany,
and Show of Force by Latino Leadership Against
the Rockefeller Drug Laws
Advocates Remind Legislators
What Constitutes Real Reform and Promise Insincere
Pataki a “Long, Hot Summer” During Republican
Convention if No Real Reform Delivered
After a conference committee
that was designed to hammer out Rockefeller reform
and came up empty handed, Albany legislators are
taking time out from their summer vacations to
come back into session and address the Rockefeller
issue. While there is a consensus that something
must be done about these unpopular laws, what
should be done remains in question. Though Republican
Senate Majority leader Joseph Bruno has promised
and Governor George Pataki has given lip service
to Rockefeller reform, they continue to water
down potential agreements to the point that the
word ‘reform’ no longer applies. As
Albany continues to waffle, advocates are turning
up the heat:
1. A series of hard
hitting ads will run in New York’s two
major Spanish-language dailies, Hoy and El Diario,
Washington D.C.’s El Tiempo and the Legislative
Gazette
This series of ads starting July
14 questions Governor Pataki’s loyalty to
the Latino community. Today’s El Diario features
one which reads “Do Bush and Pataki care
about our children? Bush sends our parents to
war in Iraq for oil. Pataki fills New York prisons
with our parents, because of the unjust Rockefeller
Laws.” Pataki publicly courts the Latino
community with events like his upcoming “Amigos”
party at the Republican National Convention, and
has given lip service to Rockefeller reform. Privately,
however, he is a major obstacle to real reform.
For more information about these ads, please contact
Randy Credico, (718) 813-0146.
2. Busload of “Survivors
of the Rock” drives from Harlem to Albany
special session.
On July 21st, the second and
last day of this special session, a busload of
survivors of the Rockefeller drug laws and their
families will be driving from Harlem, New York
City to Albany to be present during the latest
set of hearings.
3. Latino Community Leaders Hold
Press Conference: Pataki “No Amigo”
on Rockefeller Drug Laws
Real Reform 2004 defines Real
Reform as:
- Reducing sentences
to levels proportionate to those for other non-violent
crimes, and to bring New York into line with
national standards.
- Restoring judicial discretion
so judges can fashion just sentences based on
consideration of the particular case, and to
sentence low-level offenders to community-based
treatment.
- Delivering retroactive
sentencing relief to currently incarcerated
Rockefeller inmates serving unjustly long sentences.
- Expanding drug treatment
programs and other alternatives to incarceration
for diverted low-level offenders.
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