Mothers of the New York Disappeared
Elaine Bartlee, Randy Credico & Jan Warren, Founding Organizers
Mothers of the New York Disappeared is a grassroots project working to reform a New York State’s Rockefeller drug laws, increase awareness about the destructive results of the expanding prison system, and promote transitional services for the formerly incarcerated and their families. The group is patterned after the social movement known as Mothers of the Disappeared in Argentina and Chile, where women carried photos and marched weekly to draw attention to loved ones killed by military troops. Similarly, Mothers of the New York Disappeared “calls public attention to the virtual disappearance of drug war prisoners into the hidden confines of the United States prison industrial complex.” The fines of the United States prison industrial complex.” The Rockefeller drug laws impose a minimum sentence of 15 years for any drugs possession or sale in the State, which has resulted in growth of the prison population from 12,500 in 1973 to more than 70,000 in 2000, mainly first time, low-level drug offenders.
Since 1998, Mothers of the New York Disappeared has organized vigils at Rockefeller Center and in Albany to raise public awareness. The group also engages in discussions with public awareness. The group also engages in discussion with public officials emphasizing treatment instead of imprisonment and increased judicial discretion in sentencing. Ongoing workshops educated about the drug laws, effects of incarceration on children and the economics of prison expansion. The goal is to bring about a “humane national policy.” Regarding who get incarcerated, conditions of incarceration and transition of the formerly incarcerated back into society.