Lawmakers want to change the state's criminal sentencing guidelines to reverse the impact of the Rockefeller Drug Laws — enacted 50 years ago today — which imposed some of the nation's harshest prison sentences at the time for certain drug charges.

In 1973, lawmakers passed the controversial statutes under former Gov. Nelson Rockefeller in efforts for drug crimes to be taken more seriously. The early development in the War on Drugs led to other U.S. states and the federal government to adopt similar tough sentencing guidelines, which led to record rates of incarceration and perpetuated poverty in low-income and minority communities.

"By instituting mandatory minimums, the goal was to sort of increase the deterrent effect the law on people who were involved in dealing drugs," explained Shawn Bushway, a professor of criminal justice and public administration & policy at UAlbany. "It was primarily about dealing drugs, not selling drugs."

The new rules didn't change people's behavior.

"The number of people actually sentenced for the crimes that were listed did not go up, and so the time served did not change," Bushway said. "However, prosecutors got a lot more discretion because they could threaten people with these laws, that if you didn't plea bargain. ...So the end result was the prosecutors got a lot more leverage."

The Legislature voted to significantly weaken the Rockefeller Drug Laws in 2013.

The practice forced Melanie Bishop's son, Zachery, to take a plea deal to serve 12 years in prison after being convicted of robbery in Livingston County.

He would have taken advantage of his constitutional right to a trial, but would have risked serving more than 40 years as a first-time offender.

"He was told that if he exercised his right to trial, that he was facing 40-plus years of incarceration for a first-time offender," the concerned mother recalled Monday. "Obviously, when you're 19 years of age, that is a lifetime. That is a gamble."

Zachery, now 25, is incarcerated at Five Points Correctional Facility in Seneca County.

About 98% of convictions in New York are the result of guilty plea deals without a trial, according to legislation sponsored by Assemblyman Demond Meeks to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences statewide.

The bill, nicknamed the Eliminate Mandatory Minimums Act, would give judges complete discretion in deciding a person's sentence depending on the facts of an individual case.

"We've heard time and time again, when a judge says, 'Hey, listen, I don't have a choice. I would like to give you this type of sentence, but based upon the guidelines set forth, I'm required to follow these guidelines,'" Meeks said.

If it becomes law, the legislation would also eliminate New York's two-and three-strike laws, which mandate a person receive a life sentence in prison after conviction of three serious violent or drug-related felonies. 

Republican Assemblyman John McGowan, a former prosecutor in Rockland County, says mandatory minimum sentences are meant to hold people accountable if they commit a criminal offense.

"To get rid of that floor and just have the ceiling? It's going to imbalance a system," said McGowan, of Pearl River. "Using the Rockefeller drug laws as a reason to justify this, it doesn't make sense to me."

McGowan served as a special victims prosecutor and said eliminating mandatory minimum criminal sentences altogether would have a negative impact on public safety, and should update the state's sentencing guidelines with smaller changes first.

"I think it's detrimental to the victims of crimes," he said. "I think it's detrimental to the safety of our residents in New York. ...This is too broad of a stroke, too broad of a measure to try to fix something. If we need to fix and talk about updating our sentencing guidelines or updating the laws we have when it comes to sentencing offenders, there's a way to do it. This is not it."

The state reports more than 30,000 people incarcerated in minimum- and maximum-security prisons statewide. Nearly 75% are Black or Latino New Yorkers, according to the legislation.

The bill was amended this year to remove a provision to create a presumption against incarceration, or require a hearing before a judge can impose any prison sentence.

CORRECTION: This story has been amended from an earlier version about what's included in the proposed Eliminate Mandatory Minimums Act. The legislation was changed and would no longer create a presumption against incarceration.