Shayna Kessler is the Community Outreach Cooridnator for the Bronx Defenders as well as a leader of the Drop the Rock campaign in New York City, a movement calling for the repeal of the Rockefeller Drug Laws.

Drop the Rock is a coalition of over 1,000 organizations and individuals working to repeal the Rockefeller Drug Laws. The Correctional Association of New York, a quasi- government/prison watchdog group is our main funder. Our objective is to repeal the Rockefeller laws- to completely eliminate mandatory minimums from drug sentencing. We would welcome any positive steps in that direction, but our main goal is the complete repeal.

“Low-level drug offenders are going to prison much longer than those convicted of rape and murder and people know that’s a problem.”

Drop the Rock has been building a lot of support. The Rockefeller laws have been around for 30 years, they are the harshest mandatory minimums in the country. Kids with just 4 ounces of cocaine get 7-15 years. There is widespread recognition now that they are not working, that they don’t go after the real culprits. Kingpins know that people are generally arrested based on what they have in their possession, so they won’t carry it. So the people with serious drug problems are the ones that get caught up- not the big criminals.

Low-level drug offenders are going to prison much longer than those convicted of rape and murder and people know that’s a problem.

Support is certainly growing. An overwhelming number of politicians are calling for reform or repeal. But Albany has a really difficult time of getting anything passed, not just drug reform

Q: Why is the drug problem so big here?

The things you see- my overall perspective is that people, an enormous number of people, feel disempowered- the criminal justice system targets this community very heavily- that the system is against them, not with them- they fell threatened.

We are trying to get people involved in the system- to realize they can have power- to not just know their rights, but to know how to protect them.

Addiction in a wealthy community is seen as a disease- you go get medical help- here, it is seen as a crime.

Q: Do you think there is a bigger drug abuse problem in the Bronx than in the suburbs?

I don’t think we have anything that demonstrates that we have a bigger addiction problem here than in any other community- it’s enforcement- that’s the difference, enforcement. Usually studies show as much or more use and dealing in wealthier, white communities. I don’t think there is more addiction here, it’s just harder to hide. People here are homeless, they have no where to go to hide it.

Q: So then why do so many people have the wrong impression?

Overall, studies show that more whites use, but the perspective is persistent because it is a lot harder to hide if you are living in cramped quarters, people are forced to take it out on the streets. Law enforcement targets poor communities of color- that’s what it boils down to, the police target low-level things. Are the arrests higher here? Absolutely.

The really incredible thing is meeting phenomenally powerful people faced with the most daunting life circumstances who still manage to succeed. Those people are just fascinating.

One woman, a 17-year heroin user, with five kids, had injected in her foot. She came in here the first time limping. Now she has been clean for two years and has just started training to become a social worker. She always has an incredible attitude. “I can do this.” And she has many (criminal) convictions under her belt.

It’s also about the people who aren’t so inspiring. She’s the type that will always excel, but then there’s those who went to crappy schools, who are from bad neighborhoods, who dropped out of school, and are targeted by police. To watch them learn how to succeed, that’s incredible too; to move beyond life’s challenges.

Q: So what is keeping the Rockefeller Drug Laws in place?

It’s the state that’s the problem. Even the district attorneys in New York City are less brutal.

It comes to politics. The prisons are upstate. Most of those convicted come from New York City and are sent upstate and counted as residents of the districts upstate. A lot of jobs also go upstate, so lots of politicians outside of New York City have no interest in getting rid of the Rockefeller Drug Laws. It kind of gets back the 3/5ths of a person thing- they are residents, but can’t vote, etc.

The real problem is that the Rockefeller laws get rid of the adversarial court system and just hands everything over to the prosecutor. The prosecutor chooses what the charge will be and the sentence. People never want to give up power. There’s a whole bunch of powerful people that don’t want to get rid of the Rockefeller laws.