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Diana McCague, founder of the Chai Project of New Jersey, was sentenced this week (12/17) for the crime of distributing clean syringes to addicted individuals in New Brunswick. This was the second time that McCague had been arrested and convicted of the same charge.

At her first trial, in 1997, the judge called McCague "a modern day Joan of Arc" and said he'd be proud to have her as a daughter, though he claimed he was bound by the law and found her guilty, fining her $500 and suspending her drivers' license for 6 months.

This time, however, McCague was given a 90 day suspended jail sentence, plus fines of $750, another six months' license suspension and 100 hours of community service, which the judge has indicated he wants her to serve for the local DARE program.

"50,000 people in New Jersey are infected with the HIV virus" McCague told The Week Online. "Of those, half were infected by sharing a syringe, and another 25% were infected because they are the sexual partner or the child of an IV drug user. So what we are saying is that three fourths of New Jersey's HIV infections could have been prevented by the availability of sterile syringes."

The suspended sentence means that if McCague is caught with a syringe again, she faces certain jail time. Suspending her drivers' license was also painful because McCague has earned much of her income in recent years driving a cab. The community service will be problematic, she said, because 100 hours will be difficult to spare for someone who is struggling to make ends meet. But the suggestion that she might have to serve that service in the DARE program was the most shocking of all.

"I don't know, and even the judge doesn't know, whether he can make me do my service for DARE. I'll tell you though that I will not be made to say anything that I don't believe. If they want me to go into schools and do drug education, however, I'm going to go in there and tell the truth. And truth has nothing to do with what the state means when it talks about drug education."

Since her most recent arrest, the Chai Project has stopped exchanging syringes, though they are still doing outreach, providing condoms and legal safe drug use equipment, as well as providing information and treatment referrals. But if McCague has decided to obey the law of New Jersey, that doesn't mean that she respects it, or the people who write or enforce it.

"The facts being what they are, there is simply no excuse for the denial of sterile injection equipment to addicts. It's very simple: this law is killing people. Those in the legislature who support the law are murderers, the governor, who refuses to change the law, is a murderer, and the people who enforce this law are murderers. No one can dispute the fact that there are people in New Jersey right now who are addicted, who are sharing needles, and who are contracting HIV because we are no longer out there doing exchange. Those people are going to die. Plain and simple. And this law, and those who wrote and enforce it, are responsible for those deaths."

"They're throwaway people, according to the state" she added. "It's sad, but their lives apparently aren't as valuable as the political points that our esteemed governor is trying to make for herself."

McCague has provided DRCNet with her statement to the Court:

The Chai Project's mission is -- and always has been -- to reduce the harm of substance use and sexual activity. Always mindful of harm and the causes of harm, we have been diligent in assessing the effects of our activities. What sense would it make to work to reduce some harm only to produce other harm which might not otherwise have occurred? There is no evidence of our activities ever having caused damage -- either to an individual or to our community. The prosecutor may argue that the simple act of defying the law is harmful because it undermines the moral authority of the law. Assistant Prosecutor Bill Lamb made this argument before the appellate division in my first case and more recently in an op-ed piece that was published in the Home News Tribune. If this argument is accepted, we must define the activities of many Americans as having been harmful - including participants in the Boston Tea Party, those who facilitated the freeing of slaves via the Underground Railroad, Susan B. Anthony who voted when it was illegal for women to do so, and Rosa Parks who refused to give her seat on the bus to a white man.

I am not so arrogant as to rank myself among these incredibly courageous people. In fact, there are many activists in the United States who have taken exactly the risks that I have taken in order to save the lives of drug users and their families by giving out clean syringes in defiance of the law. It is their lead that I have followed during the past five years -- though with radically different results: to date, no one who has been arrested in the U.S. for dispensing syringes in an effort to protect the public health has been punished to the degree that I have -- including those who have been charged and convicted more than once. Furthermore, in every city and/or state where people have taken the lead on this issue by getting out onto the street to save lives, the government -- sometimes local authorities and sometimes state authorities -- has always followed by making syringe exchange legal. I was hopeful that my government would follow as others have and would acknowledge that the statute which I am accused of violating was never intended to condemn drug users and their loved ones to chronic disease and death. What's more, I thought my government
would surely acknowledge that the statute was never intended to punish those who were engaged in emergency prevention efforts.

In April of 1996, when I was arrested on this charge for the first time, my resolve was strengthened. I would continue no matter what. In August of 1997 my commitment was further reinforced when, during my trial in this very courtroom, I admitted that the Chai Project's activities had continued. Judge Brenner did not admonish me to stop -- in fact he commended our work by calling it noble. I believed then that, armed with the truth, my personal fortitude could withstand the power of the state. Recently, however, the state has unleashed its power in greater measures.

The seizure of the Chai Project's van, the establishment of a high bail, and the threat of a felony charge have had their intended effect
-- my resolve has been broken, and consequently I have announced publicly through the press and in other forums that I will no longer distribute syringes and that as long as the Chai Project is running under my direction, the organization will refrain from this activity as well. I would add that this was a difficult and painful decision; I am convinced that what we have been forced to discontinue is a public health service that has saved lives.

I believe there is no purpose then, to punishing me to a greater extent than the criminal code requires. Certainly I've received the intended message and responded clearly. Indeed, everyone watching this situation has gotten the message -- further violations will result in ever harsher sanctions. Despite the fact that much political mileage would be gained were I to be sentenced to a jail term I know that it would be contrary to my own best interests and the interests of the Chai Project and those it serves for me to be incarcerated.

The Chai Project continues in its mission to reduce the harm associated with drug use and sexual activity by engaging only in legal activities. We continue to practice Harm Reduction, which compels us always to act peacefully and non-judgmentally. We will continue to distribute safer sex and legal safer drug using materials and information. We will continue to support our participants as they seek out other services, including drug treatment. We will continue to educate our participants and the community about how to be as healthy and safe as possible under current conditions. In fact, since our ability to collect used and potentially deadly syringes has been removed, we have established a plan to work with the New Brunswick Police Department to clean up inappropriately discarded syringes under the supervision of law enforcement officials -- resulting in the continued protection of our community from accidental needlesticks.

For us to continue our work and to function at the most efficient possible level I must be present and available, I must be able to drive, I must be able to move about at will.

Finally, I ask for leniency for my own sake. It's been months since I've known a sense of joy or contentment -- I'm exhausted and broke. My family and friends worry about my ability to endure additional stress and hardship. Over the past three months, an inordinate amount of my time and resources have been focused on these legal difficulties: I want to get back to my work and move forward; I want to fulfill my part in the mission of the Chai Project.

http://www.drcnet.org/wol/069.html#chaiproject
ALERT: Show of Support Needed for New Jersey Needle Exchange, 12/4/98

http://www.drcnet.org/wol/061.html#chaibust
New Jersey Needle Exchange Busted Again, 10/2/98

http://www.drcnet.org/wol/058.html#whitman
Whitman, AIDS Council Still at Odds Over Needle Exchange, 9/11/98

http://www.drcnet.org/wol/052.html#chaiproject
NJ NEP Workers' Conviction Upheld in Appeals Court, 7/31/98

http://www.drcnet.org/wol/048.html#njpoll
On Polling Numbers and Syringe Exchange in New Jersey, 7/2/98

http://www.drcnet.org/wol/030.html#chaiproject
Needle Exchange Volunteer Arrested in New Jersey, 2/20/98

http://www.drcnet.org/wol/019.html#chai
NJ Needle Exchange Continues Legal Battle, 11/15/97

http://www.drcnet.org/wol/016.html#mothers
Mothers March on New Jersey State Capitol, 10/24/97

http://www.drcnet.org/wol/009.html#editorial
Needle Exchange is Still Illegal... but That Doesn't Make it Wrong, 8/29/97

http://www.drcnet.org/wol/007.html#chai
Media Alert: Needle Exchangers Convicted, 8/15/97

http://www.drcnet.org/rapid/1997/8-13-1.html
Action Alert: Needle Exchangers Convicted, 8/13/97

http://www.drcnet.org/rapid/1996/3-19-2.html
URGENT: Prosecutors Targeting NJ Needle Exchange Program, 3/19/96

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