End of an Era: The Impact of Drug Law Reform in New York City
"In 2009, the latest in a series of reforms essentially dismantled New
York State’s Rockefeller Drug Laws, eliminating mandatory minimum
sentences for people convicted of a range of felony drug charges and
increasing eligibility for diversion to treatment. To study the impact
of these reforms, Vera partnered with the John Jay College of Criminal
Justice and the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University to
examine the implementation of drug law reform and its impact on
recidivism, racial disparities, and cost in New York City. The National
Institute of Justice-funded study found that drug law reform, as it
functioned in the city soon after the laws were passed, led to a 35
percent rise in the rate of diversion of eligible defendants to
treatment. Although the use of diversion varied significantly among the
city’s five boroughs, it was associated with reduced recidivism rates,
and cut racial disparities in half."
View the Report
No comments:
Post a Comment