[CTRL] THE FAKE DRUG WAR IS TO KEEP THE JAILS FULL

[Ronald L. Wilson]

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http://www.binghamtonpress.com/binghamtonnews/local/Monews5.html Report takes state prisons to task  Lawmakers accused of using drug laws to create upstate jobs By KYLE HUGHES       Albany Bureau Writer     ALBANY - Influential state legislators oppose the repeal of harsh drug-crime laws because longer sentences produce more inmates and prisons, which mean more jobs for the economically depressed upstate region, a new report on New York's prison-building program concludes. "Upstate lawmakers have a vested interest in keeping those laws on the books because it continues the flow of prisoners into their communities and increases the pressure to build more prisons," charged Robert Gangi of the City Project, a Manhattan-based civic group that issued the report called "Following the Dollars: Where New York State Spends its Prison Moneys." The group is seeking the repeal of the 1973 Rockefeller Drug Laws, which require judges to impose long prison terms for drug crimes, such as 15 years to life for selling two ounces or possessing four ounces of a narcotic. The report out today says that 93 percent of New York's 71,000 state inmates are confined in prisons built in state Senate districts represented by Republicans, and 98 percent of all new prisons built in the last 17 years were located in upstate GOP Senate districts. Gangi said the trend has meant that mostly white rural communities have benefited economically at the expense of mostly poor minority neighborhoods. Blacks and Hispanics make up 25 percent of the state's population, but 83 percent of people in prison; 94 percent of those incarcerated for drugs are black or Hispanic. The report notes that 20 years ago, roughly the same number of whites, blacks and Hispanics went to prison for drugs in New York. "This highly skewed racial breakdown persists despite the fact that research by the federal government's Department of Health and Human Services has consistently shown that whites make up the vast majority of people who use drugs," the report says. The report said white drug use usually takes place behind closed doors, in business districts, or suburban settings away from law enforcement, while such activities generally occur on the streets under the watchful eye of police in minority communities. Poor defendants also lack access to drug treatment and good legal representation, the report says. The building program - which was approved by both Republican and Democratic legislators - means that prisons in those rural communities take in more than $1.1 billion annually in state funds, including prison payrolls worth hundreds of millions. Gangi, whose group opposes new prison construction, says the massive prison-building program for upstate New York launched by Gov. Mario Cuomo and continued by Gov. George Pataki represents "a confluence of economic need and political influence." The report said the state should find better methods of economic development for upstate communities and consider alternatives to incarceration such as community drug treatment programs.   Pataki has proposed building another $180 million, 750-cell maximum-security prison to hold 1,500 double-bunked inmates. The location has not been determined, but it is expected to be located in Western New York or the Mohawk Valley if approved as part of a new budget. That drive to build more prisons to provide jobs upstate has come as the number of people sent to prison for drug offenses has increased significantly. In 1998, 47 percent of the new inmates were sent there for drug offenses, compared to 11 percent in 1980. The report said 70 percent of state-prison inmates come from New York City, but two-thirds of all prisons are located more than a three-hour drive from downstate, cutting off family ties for many inmates. The report notes that 37 percent of New York's 71 prisons are located in the Senate districts represented by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ronald Stafford, R-Plattsburg, (12 prisons); Senate Codes Committee Chairman Dale Volker, R-Depew, (eight); and Senate Crime Victims, Crime and Corrections Committee Chairman Michael Nozzolio, R-Fayette, (six). Another nine prisons are in the district represented by Sen. John Bonacic, R-Middletown, a junior member of the Legislature whose predecessor Charles Cook was along-tenured Republican lawmaker. That means 49 percent of the state's prisons are located in just four GOP senators' districts. Nozzolio called the report "totally irresponsible. It's race-baiting at its worst." "I don't see many neighborhoods in New York City requesting prisons," Nozzolio added. Gangi said there is undeniably a racial factor in the prison-building program because it benefits white areas of the state by locking up poor non-whites. "That's not race-baiting; that's an incredibly sound analysis that points to the racial injustice practiced by the government," Gangi said. The report said that state officials were quick to note the economic benefits of a new prison opening this summer in Seneca County in Nozzolio's district. The project brings "540 new jobs and an annual payroll of some $25.2 million ... (and) 190 secondary jobs with an annual payroll of $3.3 million," the report says, quoting a Department of Correctional Services publication. Thomas Bergin, a spokesman for Stafford, said he was not sure what the point of the City Project report was. "This sounds like an overview of what you face when you have prisons in one area and prisoners coming from another area," Bergin said. "We certainly welcomed (new prisons) because Sen. Stafford's area was economically depressed," Bergin added. "They provide solid and steady employment. Why wouldn't we take them? Why would we turn our back on that?"      Downstate, space is at a premium State Department of Correctional Services spokesman James Flateau said prisons are built upstate by necessity. Downstate, open space is at a premium, community opposition is strong and construction costs are higher. "Everybody knows that for whatever reason, construction projects seem to take longer to build in New York City than elsewhere in the state," he said. "You equally know upstate we can get a prison in the ground and open in less than two years." When Cuomo proposed building a prison in the South Bronx in the 1980s, the per-cell cost was estimated at $275,000 - about three times as expensive as construction upstate. Flateau also noted that former Gov. Hugh Carey opened a prison on the grounds of a Long Island state hospital in 1980. It was closed three years later after a campaign by community opponents. The report said another injustice of the prison-building program is that census figures count inmates as residents of the areas where they are incarcerated, rather than their home addresses. This policy "effectively transfers the public funds and electoral influence, which are based on the number of individuals living in a district, from one place to another, from low-income, inner-city neighborhoods of color to white, rural, upstate areas," the report says.