The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Sen. Eric Schneiderman, D-Manhattan, who sponsored the changes to the state's so-called Rockefeller-era drug laws, indicated yesterday that he will seek to delay the implementation of the provision so it can be reviewed further.

"Just administratively it was too aggressive a time frame," he said.

Schneiderman's original bill included exemptions from the sealed-records provision for employers who are legally required to do criminal background checks. But most of the exemptions were not included in the final bill, which was approved as part of the state budget last month.

Schneiderman, however, defended the law, saying prosecutors already had the right to petition a judge to expunge or seal a drug offender's record. Now a judge will have that authority to do so after an offender completes a treatment program, he explained. "A defendant should be able to go to a judge and say 'the prosecutor wouldn't do this for me,' " he said. "Now the judge can overrule the prosecutor."

But district attorneys said the new law lets judges seal not only the record of a current case, including a non-violent felony offense, but also records of three previous misdemeanor convictions.

Also, the judge's record-sealing discretion can apply to cases not related to drugs, prosecutors said.

Putnam County District Attorney Adam Levy said the "state Legislature has seen fit to enact a law with no real public debate." Letting convicted drug dealers' criminal records be sealed, he said, allows "drug dealers to work in day-care centers, caring for our children, and in senior centers, caring for our parents and grandparents."

"The state Legislature's main responsibility should be to protect its citizens," Levy said. "This law fails to protect our community."

Lawmakers "in their zeal to give people in court-ordered treatment a fresh start in life have gone way too far," said Rockland District Attorney Thomas Zugibe. "You can't pretend these convictions never happened or people weren't addicts. Many addicts go back, and employers who hire them are unaware of their history."

Zugibe said that realistically, bus companies likely won't hire former addicts as drivers, while schools won't hire them as teachers and families won't hire them as nannies.

"Many employment opportunities will be lost, and they should be," Zugibe said.

Westchester District Attorney Janet DiFiore's office declined to comment yesterday.

Sen. Ruth Hassell-Thompson, D-Mount Vernon, chairwoman of the Senate Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Committee, said in a statement that the criticism "is an alarmist attitude of a few who refuse to accept the notion that many of these former addicts have served their time and proven themselves worthy of a second chance."

The provision is part of sweeping changes to the drug laws that the Democratic-controlled Legislature and Gov. David Paterson agreed to last month.

The new measures strip the remaining pieces of drug laws imposed in 1973 under Gov. Nelson Rockefeller to give mandatory sentences for many drug crimes.

The changes repeal mandatory minimum prison sentences for people convicted of low-level drug felonies and let judges send some offenders to treatment facilities instead of prison.

It also shortens prison sentences for some who are incarcerated. Republicans in the state Senate, who had blocked similar bills when they were in the majority, this week proposed repealing the record-sealing provision, but the bill has not been advanced.

Democrats won the majority in the Senate in January.

Putnam County District Attorney Adam Levy said the "state Legislature has seen fit to enact a law with no real public debate." Letting convicted drug dealers' criminal records be sealed, he said, allows "drug dealers to work in day-care centers, caring for our children, and in senior centers, caring for our parents and grandparents."

"The state Legislature's main responsibility should be to protect its citizens," Levy said. "This law fails to protect our community."

Lawmakers "in their zeal to give people in court-ordered treatment a fresh start in life have gone way too far," said Rockland District Attorney Thomas Zugibe. "You can't pretend these convictions never happened or people weren't addicts. Many addicts go back, and employers who hire them are unaware of their history."

Zugibe said that realistically, bus companies likely won't hire former addicts as drivers, while schools won't hire them as teachers and families won't hire them as nannies.

"Many employment opportunities will be lost, and they should be," Zugibe said.

Westchester District Attorney Janet DiFiore's office declined to comment yesterday.

Sen. Ruth Hassell-Thompson, D-Mount Vernon, chairwoman of the Senate Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Committee, said in a statement that the criticism "is an alarmist attitude of a few who refuse to accept the notion that many of these former addicts have served their time and proven themselves worthy of a second chance."

The provision is part of sweeping changes to the drug laws that the Democratic-controlled Legislature and Gov. David Paterson agreed to last month.

The new measures strip the remaining pieces of drug laws imposed in 1973 under Gov. Nelson Rockefeller to give mandatory sentences for many drug crimes.

The changes repeal mandatory minimum prison sentences for people convicted of low-level drug felonies and let judges send some offenders to treatment facilities instead of prison.

It also shortens prison sentences for some who are incarcerated. Republicans in the state Senate, who had blocked similar bills when they were in the majority, this week proposed repealing the record-sealing provision, but the bill has not been advanced.

Democrats won the majority in the Senate in January.

http://lohud.com/article/20090528/NEWS05/905280393/-1/newsfront