Racial Composition

Studies and experience have shown that the majority of people who use and sell drugs in the state of New York are white. These findings are not unique to New York. Throughout the nation whites and minorities used drugs at roughly the same rates. However, African-Americans and Latinos comprise over 94% of the drug offenders in New York state prisons. Despite their majority status, whites makes up only 4.9% of drug offenders in New York prisons. African-Americans constitute 48.7% and Latinos 45.5%. Of the 3,504 women in New York state prisons on December 31, 1998, 1,971 (56.3%) were there for drug offenses. 91% of the women drug offenders in New York prisons are people of color: 54.3% are African-American and 36.7% are Latino. Only 8.4% are white.

Effects of the Laws

As of December 31, 1998, there were over 22,000 drug offenders locked up in New York state prisons, about 33% of the entire prison population. It cost the state over $2 billion to construct prisons to house these people. The operating expense for confining them comes to over $715 million per year. Of the 19,453 commitments to the New York prison system in 1998, 9,063 (46.6%) were for drug offenses. In 1980, 886 drug offenders were sent to State prison, 11% of the total commitments for that year.

Major drug traffickers usually escape the sanctions of the Rockefeller Drug Laws. Aware of the law's emphasis on possession, drug "kingpins" use others as couriers or “mules.” Additionally, the law provides for sentences of lifetime probation in exchange for cooperation in turning other drug offenders over to the authorities. Because the less culpable of the drug offenders do not possess information that would be useful to prosecutors, it is the kingpin that may take advantage of this provision.

The overall effect of the Rockefeller Drug Laws has been that law enforcement agencies focus their efforts on those minor actors in the trade who are the most easily arrested, prosecuted, and penalized, rather than on the middle and high-level criminals who are drug dealing's true masterminds and profiteers. Of all of the drug offenders sent to New York state prisons in 1997, nearly 80% were never convicted of a violent felony and nearly half were never arrested for a violent felony. Of drug offenders sent to New York state prisons in 1997, nearly 32% had no prior felony convictions and over 17% had never been arrested for a felony.

Cost-Effective Alternatives

A 1997 study by RAND's Drug Policy Research Center concluded that treatment is the most effective tool in the fight against drug abuse, finding that treatment reduces 15 times more serious crime than mandatory minimum sentences. Studies sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse have shown that drug treatment programs, on the whole, are successful in reducing the levels of drug abuse and crime among participants and in increasing their ability to hold a job.

There are over 1,500,000 alcohol and substance abusers in New York State. About 270,000, 15% of the total are served in publicly or privately run treatment programs. The cost of keeping an inmate in NYS prison for a year is about $32,000. In comparison, the cost of most drug free outpatient care runs about $2,700-$4,500 per person per year; and the cost of residential drug treatment is $17,000-$21,000 per participant per year. Well-run alternative punishment gives selected offenders a critical opportunity to become law-abiding members of society.