Every “rockefeller Drug Laws”Essay Preview: Every “rockefeller Drug Laws”Report this essay“Rockefeller Drug Laws”In May of 1973, New Yorks Governor, Nelson Rockefeller, made a set of strict anti-drug laws for the state legislature. The purpose of these laws was to stop the drug abuse epidemic that was occurring in New York during the early 1970s. It was the most severe law in the nation; the drug laws were to punish those who possessed and sold heavy amounts of narcotics like cocaine and heroine and to hold them in custody for the amount they possessed or sold. For example, if the person was caught with the possession of two or four ounces of drugs on them the minimum time in a federal prison would be 15 years to life, no matter what age (if the offender was of 15 years of age or older). Many problems began to occur concerning the laws, also there were many critiques concerning weather or not it would work and be kept as a law.
The Rockefeller Drug Laws is still one of the most brutal drug laws in the nation because of its ground breaking punishments. The laws state specifically that, “the statutes require judges to impose a sentence of 15-years to life for anyone convicted of selling two ounces, or possessing four ounces of “narcotic drugs”. This made it clear for all those that were “dealing drugs” that this was a no-nonsense rule. This was the beginning of up coming events in history that lead to protests and also very famous summits done by family members of people in prison under the unfair ruling, friends and supports of those against the harsh laws to keep drugs off the streets.
The purpose of the laws was to provide protection and isolation from people who were not yet involved with the drug epidemic. Also, it provided peace of mind for politicians that wanted to get the drug dealers off the streets permanently. For New York the drug war had just begun. Many people were for the new laws; they saw drug dealing as if it were just like murder because the death rate from narcotics at the time was increasingly high and the danger of the drugs being on the streets was worse. The consequences of these laws have become even exaggeratedly ridiculous. In many cases a first time drug offender being charged under these laws can receive a higher sentencing then a person convicted of murder or rape. This meant that by possessing a kilo of cocaine or heroine you would be in jail for more time then a person that basically kills someone for fun.
The drug laws became even worse when space in prisons were becoming minimum and the expense to keep someone in prison was becoming more expensive. The prison business was getting more popular by the minute and even more expensive. The price to keep a drug offender in prison was more then doubled. The General Fund State Operations budget for New York State prisons went from 10% to 25% in a year (1982-83). This was more money then New York had ever spent for imprisonment of drug offenders. There were 8,880 drug offenders in NYS prisons under the Rockefeller Drug Laws in December of 1997 only. According to the Correctional Association of New York, it costs an estimated $265 million dollars to pay for these prisoners to be incarcerated. There was also an additional 12,102 drug offenders in NYS prisons under the Second Felony Offender Law, costing an estimated $360 million per year. In total there was an estimate of 22,670 drug offenders in the NYS prison system, showing a 33% of the total prison population. Compared to the estimate shown in 1980 when there was only 9%.
Not only is it becoming expensive to keep someone incarcerated, but also the population shown in these prisons is also outrageous. The effect that the laws have had on people was more towards minorities and women. Minorities were the biggest offenders in NYS prisons under the Rockefeller Drug Laws. The number of racial gaps had increased from having 33,000 people in prison under the drug law and 35% of them were blacks, Hispanics, and other racial nationality other then white. Women are at an even higher rate of incarceration than men. In an early study to determine the percentage of women prisoners under the law the results were devastating. The percentage had increased to 61.2% of all female prisoners from under the laws from a 33%. The rate of the court commitments in January of 1987 through
December was 98.9% females versus 33.5% males.This was becoming a crisis close to home to everyone. It was an issue that concerned people that didnt even have or know anyone incarcerated, the reason was because of the costs. New York was spending all this money to keep offenders in prison but the people paying for it were the citizens. Taxes had gone higher to pay for new construction work to be done in prisons for more space and to keep them locked up for their sentencing. It cost $100,000 to keep 40 inmates in jail a year and prices werent about to drop. New York saw the last straw to this problem and protests to the unfair law began. Many judges and politicians began to meet and rebel at the State Legislature to either put an end to the law or break it down. After some much trouble and problems with the law from prisoners being miss treated and sentenced unfair the laws were about to take a drastic change in almost 10 years. People protested
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Hero MemberActivity: 718Merit: 500 Re: Taxing, Taxing, Taxation October 12, 2013, 08:28:34 PM #7 I’ll be starting a blog post next. Will report here later.
And if this works I’ll try to raise and spend lots of bitcoins this year, so that my wife and I can keep in touch. (I might post in a few weeks now, please)
Just for fun and money I’ll be doing some fundraiser at a local church, one of the kids is a 14-year old to help pay for a bus so he and me can get his mother with him to get going.
I’ll also be sending out a press release for the paper so I can talk about this and get people to go to church.
Thank you for your support!
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Hero MemberActivity: 605Merit: 500 Re: Taxing, Taxing, Taxation October 12, 2013, 09:01:55 PM #11 Hi,
It may shock a few, but what happened here is that our local paper was published with the caption:
Quote from: Anonymous on October 12, 2013, 08:25:59 PM I’ll be starting a blog post next. I’ll make it easy to post when I get around – you’re being nice and don’t mind making money myself. (The blog will likely be a blog post in several weeks as I need to make a few good updates and get the word out about my goals and ideas to support the blog)
I know it’s funny, but I just don’t understand the whole “Don’t be so petty and stupid” thing, or maybe it’ll be too long.
We should have been asking the citizens of the US and other nations in the past to spend at least 50% of their personal savings to keep track of their taxes, but when we do this it means the state has actually had to pay its citizens a little more.
Taxing, Taxing, Taxation
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Don’t Stop Me Now, Your Business and Your Family!!!
I want to hear what they think of your blog or your action so if you have any thoughts or suggestions, please send them to me at
It’s easier to work on an idea when you can look at a bunch of people and see that they’re contributing to good work and the end goal in mind:
I know you can get lots of donations through the community, but you need to have something you are passionate about and that’s why I will consider it an open forum to spread the word about how to make it happen.
If you have any ideas that can help me with development or something, please let me know in the comments.
Thanks.
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Full MemberActivity: 119Merit: 100 Re: Taxing, Taxing, Taxation October 12, 2013, 10:02:20 PM #12 Thanks for your time, I’m busy right now! I’m making more people post on the project!
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Hero MemberActivity: 714Merit: 500 Re: Taxing, Taxing, Taxation October 13, 2013, 11:02:21 PM #14 I’m trying to