A new tack on drug policy could save the state billions - Opinion Blog on syracuse.com

"While New York reels from the most severe budget crisis since the Great Depression, Gov. David Paterson and the Legislature are scrambling to close ever-expanding deficits. So let's stop spending over $500 million every year on ineffective, wasteful policies like the Rockefeller Drug Laws.

These laws represent a misguided and ineffective regime for addressing drug use and addiction -- health issues, not criminal issues. Imagine if we incarcerated people for being addicted to cigarettes, or for having diabetes.

Passed in 1973, the laws mandate harsh, mandatory-minimum prison terms for even low-level drug offenses; people convicted of first- and second-time drug offenses often receive eight to 20 years. There are shocking, inexcusable racial disparities -- more than 90 percent of the people incarcerated are black or Latino, though whites use and sell illegal drugs at equal or higher rates." (Emphasis Mine.)

It is more than obvious that these laws are not working. It isn't the money: it's the social strife these laws exacerbate, rather than relieve.

From this same article, a damning statistic: 

"The state spends hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars every year on policies that both criminal justice and public health experts -- as well as the majority of New Yorkers, according to the polls -- say don't work. It costs over $35,000 a year to keep someone in prison. Factor in policing and court costs, and that number rises to nearly $50,000."

According to the College Board, the average college tuition in 2007 ranged from $2,402 (public 2-year college) to $25,143 at a private 4-year college. As a society, We would rather place large amounts of money in incarcerating people than in providing them with education. You tell Me what that says about Us.