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Office of the District Attorney P. David Soares Statement of Albany County District Attorney P. David Soares on the Assembly Bill to Further Reform the Rockefeller Drug Laws
ALBANY, NY – District Attorney P. David Soares released the following statement today in regards to Assembly Bill A08098. It has been well established that the addictive purchase and use of illegal drugs is both a crime and a mental illness. For the past thirty years we have attempted to address drug abuse exclusively as a crime. This policy has been wasteful, unjust, and ineffective. The proposed legislation mandates a combination of treatment and/or criminal sanctions for a broad range of non-violent lower level drug law offenders. By establishing treatment as an option for offenders throughout the State, this legislation will result in a more effective, more efficient, more just, and more humane criminal justice system for all New Yorkers. At the same time, by increasing the sentences for major drug dealers and for those in possession of a firearm while selling or attempting to sell controlled substances, this legislation provides prosecutors with a powerful new tool to target the gangsters and organized criminals who make their living selling drugs. Also, as a professional prosecutor with six months experience in administering the reform package enacted last year, I welcome the provisions in this new bill which repair some of the flaws in last year’s bill. The current sentencing guidelines have the perverse effect of providing more lenient treatment to some who convicted of more serious A felonies than to those convicted of lesser B felonies. This discontinuity has created outcomes which were clearly not in the spirit of the reform legislation. This new bill addreswses those flaws and should be quickly enacted into law in the name of justice. I promised the citizens of Albany County a “tough and smart” approach to crime. This legislation is both “tough and smart”. Back to Press Releases For further information contact: Richard Arthur
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