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Newshawk: Kirk
Pubdate: Sun, 16 Oct 2011
Source: Star-Gazette (NY)
Copyright: 2011sStar-Gazette
Contact:
Website: http://www.stargazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1005
Author: Mary Beth Pfeiffer
Note: Mary Beth Pfeiffer is a staff writer for the Poughkeepsie
Journal, a Gannett newspaper.
PEOPLE IMPRISONED FOR DRUG CRIMES DOWN 62 PERCENT SINCE N.Y. RELAXED LAWS
Nearly 40 years after tough new drug laws led to an explosive growth
in prison rolls, New York State has dramatically reversed course,
chalking up a 62 percent drop in people serving time for drug crimes
today compared with 2000, according to a Poughkeepsie Journal analysis.
The steep decline -- driven, experts said, by shifting attitudes
toward drug offenders and lower crime -- means that nearly 17,000
fewer minorities serve state time today than in 2000, groups that
were hardest hit by the so-called war on drugs. Overall, the prison
population declined 22 percent.
While pointing out that Hispanics and blacks are still vastly
overrepresented in prisons, incarceration experts said the overall
figures were impressive.
[Remainder snipped]
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom
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