Pubdate: Thu, 09 Dec 2004
Source: Times, The (UK)
Copyright: 2004 Times Newspapers Ltd
Contact:  http://www.the-times.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/454
Author: James Bone, New York

HIP-HOP SHAKES ROCKEFELLER DRUG LAWS

NEW YORK'S notoriously tough "Rockefeller" drug laws are to be relaxed 
after a grassroots campaign led by the rap mogul known as the "Godfather of 
hip-hop". State legislators voted on Tuesday to scale back mandatory 
sentences under the stringent drug laws passed during the crime wave of the 
early 1970s, which could send a person to jail for life for possessing just 
4oz of heroin or cocaine.

The reform cut sentences for first-time non-violent offenders from fifteen 
years' minimum to eight, with the possibility of more than a year off for 
good behaviour. At the same time, the amount of heroin or cocaine required 
to make possession a Class A-1 felony is doubled from 4oz to 8oz.

The harsh drug laws -- among the toughest in the United States -- were 
introduced by Nelson Rockefeller, the Governor of New York, in 1973-74, as 
the state lost control of its inner cities to an epidemic of heroin addiction.

Critics said that the Rockefeller laws threw too many low-level offenders 
in jail and hit ethnic minorities disproportionately hard, but Republicans 
fought hard over the years to keep the laws in place.

New York's falling crime rate made it politically possible for the state 
legislature to take another look. Pressure for reform was particularly 
strong among the black community, which has seen generations of small-time 
drug dealers sent away for long prison terms.

Leading the charge was the Hip-hop Action Summit, a group created and 
chaired by Russell Simmons, the rap impresario whose Def Jam Recordings 
helped to launch the careers of artists such as the Beastie Boys, LL Cool 
J, Run-DMC and Public Enemy.

Mr Simmons's own older brother, Daniel, and his longtime driver served time 
under the Rockefeller laws. "We are very happy and proud of all of the 
support and efforts by hip-hop artists and other community activists that 
helped to bring about today's agreement to reform the Rockefeller drug 
laws," Mr Simmons said. "Of course, we wanted more, but itA's as much as we 
could have realistically hoped for and we finally broke the stalemate."

The repeal did not satisfy reformers' demands for judges to have discretion 
in sentencing and to be able to send offenders to drug treatment instead of 
prison. The change will enable about 400 inmates in jail serving the 
harshest Rockefeller sentences to ask the courts to cut their prison time 
in line with new guidelines.

David Townsend Jr, a Republican assemblyman from upstate Oneida, mocked the 
reforms as a "get-out-of-jail-free card" that will free the "worst of the 
worst".
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