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Senate hearing on crack cocaine on Feb. 12 The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs scheduled a hearing for February 12 on federal cocaine sentencing laws titled “Reforming the 100-to-1 Crack/Powder Disparity". For over 21 years, the inequity between crack and powder cocaine sentences has been the subject of great debate. Now the Senate will take a first step toward addressing this inequity. Three bills have been introduced in the Senate and will likely be the subject of debate at the hearing. The hearing is open to the public. It will be held Tuesday, February 12 at 2:00 pm in Room 226 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building. To read more about all of the sentencing bills FAMM is tracking, click here. National call-in day to Congress, Feb. 25 Eliminate the crack and powder cocaine disparity! Join thousands of advocates across the country in calling on Congress to eliminate the federal crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparity on February 25. FAMM will send an ealert to the members on February 25 containing a link to talking points and contact information on your lawmakers. Look for an email on February 25 and check the FAMM website for updates. Also, ask your family and friends to join FAMM's email list so they can participate in the call-in day. Click here to tell a friend about FAMM.

[Courtesy of New York Campaign for Telephone Justice] 1) REPORTBACK on Walton v. NYSDOCS discussion from meeting 2) GTL: New contact info for Spanish-speaking customer service supervisor 3) MEETINGS: Scheduled changes in NYCTJ meetings 4) GET INVOLVED: Upcoming Advocacy Days in Albany to Repeal the Rockefeller Drug Laws and Speak out for Women Prisoners ********************* 1. REPORTBACK on Walton v. NYSDOCS discussion from meeting Rachel Meeropol, CCR Staff Attorney on Walton v. NYSDOCS reported on the recent dismissal of the cases constitutional claims by Judge Ceresia of the NY State Supreme Court. She mentioned that she will be appealing Judge Ceresia’s decision to the Appellate Division in the next month and will likely make oral arguments before the Appellate Division in the early summer, and will hear a decision from them by the end of the summer. If the Appellate Division overturns Judge Ceresia’s decision, Walton v. NYSDOCS will proceed to discovery and trial. If the Appellate Division affirms Judge Ceresia’s decision, Ms. Meeropol will appeal to the NY State Court of Appeals – the state’s highest court – and, if this is the case, we will not receive a final decision until this time next year. All of this said, we spent some time at our meeting discussing how family members can help to increase the likelihood of the case succeeding. The last time Ms. Meeropol argued before the Court of Appeals (last January), the Justices immediately asked her, “how does Gov. Spitzer’s decision to eliminate the contract’s commission and reduce the rates affect this case?” She told them that it does not impact the case, because, while Gov. Spitzer’s decision to eliminate the kickback and reduce the rates (and the later passage of the Family Connections bill) has a positive impact on families moving forward, it does not provide relief for the prior unlawful taxing of prison families from the contract. During the meeting, then, we agreed that we need to mobilize families over the next year to continue pressing the issue that justice has not completely been served in regards to the NY prison telephone system. Families and advocates still need their money back! Some ideas we discussed are rallying outside the courthouse at upcoming arguments in Walton v. NYSDOCS, packing the courtroom at upcoming arguments in Walton v. NYSDOCS, conducting a surveying and publishing a report on how much money NY State stole from prison families over the years, and writing OP-EDs to our local newspapers. Please stay tuned for upcoming opportunities to engage in all of these activities. We need to make as much noise over the next year as possible if we want to win this potential class action lawsuit! 2. GTL: New contact info for Spanish-speaking customer service supervisor For those who have family members or are advocates for family members who speak Spanish, please take note that Denisce DeLeon is the Spanish language customer service representative at Global Tel*Link. She can be reached at [email protected]. I have not yet received her direct phone line, but please feel free to contact her via email for her phone number so that you may share it with Spanish-speaking families who have grave customer service problems with Global Tel*Link. 3. MEETINGS: Scheduled changes in NYCTJ meetings At our meeting last week, we discussed whether or not monthly meetings are still useful for families, advocates and allies. It seems that, since we have won much of our demands, monthly meetings are not as necessary as they once were; however, people expressed interest in continuing meetings when there are significant developments in the prison telephone system and the remaining lawsuit. As such, we decided that our NEXT meeting will be at the end of March 2008, so that we can discuss the NEW prison telephone contract which will go into effect April 1, 2008. While we do not have any information yet about what changes will result from the new contract, the new contract will have to comply with the Family Connections bill, passed last summer, and we hope it will include many of families’ demands that we brought before the Department of Correctional Services last year.