The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

New York is on the verge of abolishing harsh drug sentencing laws that have long been criticized for their disproportionate impact on low-income and minority people.

The laws, passed in the 1970s under former Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller, require judges to deliver fixed sentences, often called "mandatory minimums," to people convicted of possession of even small amounts of illegal drugs.

Although New York has already repealed the harshest aspects of the laws, legislators aim to completely dismantle the laws by restoring judges' ability to give appropriate sentences to drug offenders. Bills in both the Senate and the Assembly will give judges the option to send drug offenders to substance-abuse treatment programs instead of prison and will also allow thousands of prisoners convicted of nonviolent drug offenses to apply to have their sentences shortened.

Governor David A. Patterson expressed strong support for eliminating the laws in his January 7 State of the State address: "We still have to expand treatment services; we have to give judges the opportunity to put low level offenders into treatment, and we have to make sure that our prisons are housing the most egregious of our drug policy offenders."