Tough on crime and families: New York's Rockefeller drug laws have jailed thousands with harsh mandatory sentences.(action)

Thirteen-year-old Janizabeth Estevez doesn't understand why her father is still in jail. He didn't commit murder, rape, or arson. And yet he has been incarcerated for 11 years.

Frankie Estevez was sentenced to 18 years to life for translating in a narcotics deal--even though no drugs were found when he was arrested. Estevez was sentenced under New York's get-tough-on-crime Rockefeller drug laws. But getting tough on Estevez thus far has cost New York taxpayers $300,000.

It costs $32,000 a year to keep Estevez in jail along with the other 23,000 drug offenders now in New York prisons. For years Governor George Pataki and legislators have talked about reform as the population of drug offenders in prison continues to rise, costing taxpayers nearly $590 million a year. The perception of being "soft on crime" has stalled many attempts to change the laws.

Racist Laws?

June 2003 marked the 30th anniversary of the drug laws, which were ostensibly created to eradicate the sale of illicit narcotics and imprison drug kingpins. What they did in the process was to take away judicial discretion.

"I don't think in all my years on the bench I ever saw a 'kingpin,'" said former State Supreme Court Justice Jerome Marks, who now spends his time petitioning the governor for clemencies and fighting to repeal the state drug laws.

Studies produced by the Correction Association show that the majority of people who use drugs are white, yet African Americans and Latinos make up 95 percent of the drug offenders in state prison.