Assembly Member Joseph Lentol (D-Brooklyn) first voted against new laws mandating harsh sentencing for drug offenders in 1973. He lost that battle, but he is still fighting—and in this upcoming legislative session, 36 years later, he believes he finally has a shot at transforming the draconian laws into what he considers sensible and effective drug policy.

“We have to be smart on crime,” Lentol said. “Not just tough on crime.”

New York legislators face a slate of familiar criminal justice issues this session, including drug law reform, but with the financial crisis they have a newfound incentive for action. Hoping to gain support from newly empowered Democrats, proponents argue that many of the changes on the table would not only improve public safety but also save money.

Legislators expect to consider improving programs that help felons reintegrate into communities, shuttering underutilized detention centers and increasing the use of DNA testing to clear those wrongfully convicted.

“The Democrats, while they aren’t soldiers and saints on these issues, have a history of being more receptive of the need for reform, the need to downsize the state prison system, the need to have common sense and fairness in our sentencing policies,” said Robert Gangi, executive director of the Correctional Association of New York, a prison watchdog group.

Gov. David Paterson (D), in his State of the State address, called for an overhaul of the Rockefeller drug laws, which set mandatory prison terms for those convicted of possessing or selling drugs. Though the laws were amended slightly in 2004 and 2005 to lighten some of the strictest sentences, Paterson and his allies in the legislature say the laws need to be reformed to shift the focus from incarceration to rehabilitation, and give judges more discretion in the sentencing process. Judges currently have no say in deciding whether to send an offender to prison or another option, such as a community-based program.

“The prosecutors are often prosecutor, judge and jury,” said Anita Marton, a vice president at the Legal Action Center, a nonprofit advocacy group. “They have the entire power, the entire authority.”

Six years ago, when he was a state senator, Paterson was arrested in a protest against the Rockefeller laws, and Democratic control of both houses and the governor’s office might mark a break with the failed reform efforts of the past decade. Previously, opposition from the Republican-controlled Senate has helped stymie attempts to overhaul the laws.

District attorneys have also been among the major opponents to changing the laws. Derek Champagne, the Franklin County district attorney and vice president of the District Attorneys Association of New York State, said the state should improve funding for drug and alcohol treatment programs rather than further revise the statutes.

Champagne said he fears that lessening sentences may have unintended consequences and could create a problematic cycle, in which minimal punishments lead to an increase in drug dealing and then violent crime, and the eventual re-strengthening of drug laws.

There is not much room for leniency, according to State Sen. George Winner (R-Steuben/Schuyler/Chemung).

“If you go too far in the Rockefeller drug reform, you are going to be letting a lot of bad guys out of jail,” he said.

In revising the laws, legislators would likely give more discretion to judges and look to alternatives to incarceration, including drug and alcohol treatment programs and community service work.

The Correctional Association of New York, a nonprofit dedicated to making the administration of justice fairer and more efficient, estimates that reform would save more than $220 million annually by diverting offenders into alternative rehabilitation programs.

If the Legislature goes forward with drug law reform, improving reentry programs for those released from prison will necessarily become an important priority, proponents said. They argue finding employment and creating a support network for offenders returning to their communities will be crucial.

Proposed reentry programs include the conditional sealing of certain non-violent criminal records, restoring New York’s tuition assistance program for people in prison and ensuring inmates have identification cards upon release.

The price tags vary among different reentry programs but advocates argue the money would be well spent to prevent offenders from returning to criminal behavior, given that the cost of re-incarceration often far exceeds that of reentry programs.

Additionally, helping offenders become productive members of society increases their tax contributions and decreases costs from services like health and foster care, said Glenn Martin, a vice president at the Fortune Society, a nonprofit group that helps former inmates.

The budget problem might also provide the necessary political leverage to close underutilized detention facilities.

The state has about 10,000 fewer inmates than a decade ago, a drop the Department of Correctional Services attributes to a steady decline in crime, the implementation of early-release programs for non-violent offenders and drug law reform.

Martin said the state has to close detention facilities to realize the cost savings of moves that reduce the prison population, like Rockefeller drug law reform.

In his budget for the upcoming fiscal year, the governor called for closing six underutilized juvenile detention centers as well as four minimum-security prisons and several annexes.

In the past, proposed closings have sparked intense opposition from upstate Republicans whose districts rely on the $2.7 billion-a-year prison industry as a source of jobs. In January, the state announced the closing of four prisons only to shelve the plan a few months later.

“When you close facilities, you better know what you’re doing,” said State Sen. Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn), who said overcrowding could result if closing is not done with care.

Winner said the state will have to demonstrate that the facilities are in fact underutilized to minimize opposition.

Chris Leo, legislative director of the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, said his organization opposes prison closings and plans to educate legislators about overcrowding issues.
Finally, expanding the use of DNA testing in the justice system will be a top priority, but one less tied to the state’s financial woes, legislators say.

In recent years, the Legislature has considered requiring all criminal offenders to submit DNA samples for the state’s database. Both the Senate and Assembly have voted in favor of the expansion but the Assembly insisted the bill also make it easier for inmates and defendants to seek DNA testing that might prove them innocent.

Though the two houses could not reach a compromise last year, Lentol said he is optimistic that a Democratic majority will make getting a deal easier. State Sen. Eric Schneiderman (D-Manhattan/Bronx), who will chair the committee on codes, said he expected the issue to come up in the Senate.

“I’m convinced there’s a lot we can do to ensure that innocent people are never convicted for crimes they didn’t commit,” he said.