Pubdate: Mon, 29 May 2000 Source: New York Times (NY) Copyright: 2000 The New York Times Company Contact: 229 West 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036 Fax: (212) 556-3622 Website: http://www.nytimes.com/ Forum: http://www10.nytimes.com/comment/ Authors: David Rothenberg, Carol Shapiro, and Walter Beck REPEAL THE DRACONIAN DRUG LAWS To the Editor: "Drug Laws That Destroy Lives" (editorial, May 24) is on target. So many politicians and criminal justice experts privately admit that the Rockefeller laws are self-defeating and costly and should be repealed. Why the delay? First, several upstate communities are prison towns. Their economies would be in a state of upheaval if the prison population decreased as a result of sensible drug laws. Jobs are at stake and alternative employment must be part of the planning. Second, many products, from soap to steel, have lucrative contracts with the Department of Correction. They view a diminishing prison population as one that causes decreasing profits. Your editorial's position must be accompanied by plans to incorporate the real needs of those who profit from prisons. DAVID ROTHENBERG New York, May 24, 2000 To the Editor: It is indeed alarming that 22,300 largely nonviolent drug offenders are in New York prisons (editorial, May 24). Rockefeller-era laws have not only clogged this state's prisons with low-level drug offenders, but also pull apart families and neighborhoods, leaving children without parents and communities economically and socially fragmented. Legislative bodies must begin to rethink current drug sentencing laws. The criminal justice system can engage families as resources in their treatment of addiction. Once supported in working partnerships, families have been shown to play a positive and powerful role in treatment and long-term recovery. Let us treat substance abuse by tapping into the inherent strengths of families and communities, rather than punishing those struggling with addiction. CAROL SHAPIRO New York, May 24, 2000 The writer is executive director, La Bodega de la Familia, a project of the Vera Institute of Justice. To the Editor: "Drug Laws That Destroy Lives" (editorial, May 24) makes drug users and sellers sound like victims rather than like the criminals they are. The women you refer to should have given thought to their children's best interests before they used or sold drugs. Moreover, you report, one brazenly refused a generous plea offer and "chose to go to trial." As for their young children, who can say what other bad influences their drugged parents might have exposed them to had they not been convicted and imprisoned? The removal of their parents from their daily lives may have been the best thing that could have happened to them. The law-abiding public should rejoice at having these criminals removed from the general population. The Rockefeller laws of 1973 should be strongly maintained and enforced. WALTER BECK Brooklyn, May 24, 2000 - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea