As spectators booed and cheered, defense attorneys, prosecutors, treatment providers and reformers testified before state lawmakers yesterday about the ongoing battle of approaches in enforcing drug laws and rehabilitating offenders. The daylong hearing in Manhattan marked to the day the 35th anniversary of the enactment of the Rockefeller Drug Laws, a set of mandatory sentencing measures that made New York one of the most punitive states. Speakers urged the panel to build on amendments to the laws in 2004 and 2005, with most calling for a more public-health based approach over a criminal justice strategy. Those alterations lifted the most draconian elements of the laws, such as lifetime incarceration for the most severe offenses. [continues 302 words]
Blacks on Long Island were 36 times more likely in 2002 to be imprisoned for drug offenses than whites, despite possessing and selling illegal drugs at similar rates, according to a national study tracking racial disparities in prison admissions. Only 14 of the nation's 198 largest counties -- those with populations of 250,000 or more -- yielded higher disparities than Long Island in the study released by the Justice Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank focusing on alternatives to incarceration. [continues 490 words]
Following Charges That Pot-Filled Cannolis Were Sent to a Nassau Inmate, Correction Officials Renew Quest for All Contraband Tobacco and postage stamps are, outside of a jail or prison, perfectly legal. But on the inside of a correctional facility, even the most mundane items acquire inflated value, if only because they are scarce and banned, and they give their owners relatively enormous power in the unique barter economy behind cinder block walls. "Contraband is a serious matter in correctional facilities," said Lt. Michael Golio of the Nassau County jail's Legal Affairs division. "Things that would be innocuous are of serious concern inside the facility." [continues 438 words]
It's been nearly a month since the state's top judges unveiled a plan to expand "drug diversion" courts, which steer addicted non-violent offenders into treatment instead of prison. The June 22 announcement promised a drug diversion program in every county in the state, a plan that is expected to reform addicts, curb crime, unclog overloaded courts and save the judicial system $ 500 million a year. The program gives drug users the option of undergoing rigid treatment or serving jail sentences if convicted. [continues 803 words]
More Children Left Without Mothers FRAMINGHAM - Kim Cooper adored her 7-year-old son, Scott. But she had a love that was even more powerful, one that ruled her daily life. When her son went outside to play, she would make crack cocaine on the kitchen stove in her Billerica home. "It's all I cared about," she said. "I thought when I couldn't get it I would die." One spring day in 1996, Scott went to a friend's birthday party and returned to find his mother handcuffed on the floor. A state trooper, working undercover, had gone to the house and bought cocaine from an acquaintance of his mother's. [continues 1357 words]
As number of female inmates rises, more children left without mothers FRAMINGHAM - Kim Cooper adored her 7-year-old son, Scott. But she had a love that was even more powerful, one that ruled her daily life. When her son went outside to play, she would make crack cocaine on the kitchen stove in her Billerica home. "It's all I cared about," she said. "I thought when I couldn't get it I would die." One spring day in 1996, Scott went to a friend's birthday party and returned to find his mother handcuffed on the floor. A state trooper, working undercover, had gone to the house and bought cocaine from an acquaintance of his mother's. [continues 1359 words]
Shirley facility to fill up quickly Three years since 299 inmates were shipped to Texas to ease pressure on a prison system crowded to a near-bursting point, the state today is set to unveil the crown jewel of its correctional system, a state-of-the-art 1,000-bed prison in Shirley. But almost as soon as the ribbon is cut, that facility, the state's second maximum-security prison after MCI-Cedar Junction in Walpole, will be filled to capacity. [continues 544 words]
An audience of 1,500 professional black women sat in a hotel ballroom yesterday and gasped at details of how a young woman, whose dreams of business success reminded them of their own daughters, fell in love with a smooth-talking drug dealer and ended up sentenced to prison for a quarter century. Members of The Links Inc., a national group, expressed outrage over the case of Kemba Smith, 26, who is serving a 24 1/2-year sentence under federal mandatory drug sentencing laws - even though prosecutors said she never used, handled, or benefited from her boyfriend's illegal trade. [continues 634 words]
Retired General Colin Powell's latest mission, to marshal a national corps of volunteers to quell drug wars in central cities, check the advance of teenage pregnancy, and rout out despair among youth, is far from done, he says, but is showing progress. A year after the launch of ''America's Promise - The Alliance for Youth,'' Powell, the program's chairman, visited Fenway Park to help area youngsters from the Boys and Girls Club throw the first pitch at the Red Sox game against the Cleveland Indians, and to pitch an ''evangelical'' effort to save America's troubled kids. ''The ultimate measure of success will be seen 10 years from now,'' Powell said. ''If there are fewer young girls getting pregnant, fewer kids in gangs, that's how we measure success. I believe we can do this.'' [continues 296 words]
Success In Fighting Aids Is Noted As Some Urge US To Finance Effort Four years after the state began its first needle exchange program, local public health officials say their success at checking the spread of AIDS - without encouraging drug use - makes a strong case for lifting a ban on federal funding of such programs nationally. The heavy lobbying in favor of clean needle programs comes just as a congressional moratorium on federal funding has expired. The lobbying is directed at US Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, who must decide whether to align the federal government with program advocates. [continues 563 words]
In the past three years, drug use in state prisons has declined dramatically and while correction officials give some of the credit to treatment programs, they say the biggest factor is fear: Massive testing of inmates has put them at high risk of punishment if they use narcotics. In an effort that the US Department of Justice calls the best in the nation, the state Department of Correction reports that positive urine-test results have declined from 2.3 percent of those tested in 1995 to 0.3 percent in 1997. [continues 684 words]
By Zachary R. Dowdy, Globe Staff A study of Massachusetts prisoners that links poverty, race, and crime may recharge the ongoing debate over whether drug dealers and users with no history of violence should receive mandatory sentences at a time when prisons are overcrowded. Rather than prison terms, the study recommends alternative sanctions such as intensive probation and treatmentoriented drug courts for nonviolent offenders. The 100page study, released yesterday, was written by William N. Brownsberger, a state assistant attorney general specializing in narcotics who is also a research fellow in drug policy at Harvard Medical School. [continues 690 words]
A study of Massachusetts prisoners that links poverty, race, and crime may recharge the ongoing debate over whether drug dealers and users with no history of violence should receive mandatory sentences at a time when prisons are overcrowded. Rather than prison terms, the study recommends alternative sanctions such as intensive probation and treatmentoriented drug courts for nonviolent offenders. The 100page study, released yesterday, was written by William N. Brownsberger, a state assistant attorney general specializing in narcotics who is also a research fellow in drug policy at Harvard Medical School. [continues 691 words]
