As we wrote here, this week's revision of New York's draconian Rockefeller drug laws is hardly something to cheer about. Today's New York Times provides some more damning criticism:

Indeed, to some advocates, the new bill is not even half a loaf, but more like a heel of bread, which will leave many prisoners and their families with dashed hopes.

"The important message to get out is that the laws are virtually as harsh as ever," said Robert Gangi, executive director of the Correctional Association of New York, a prison watchdog group. For example, he noted, judges must still sentence drug offenders to prison, rather than to alternatives like drug treatment.

Translated into real numbers, the changes in the law mean this: Approximately 446 offenders may get out early....of the more than 15,000 that were sentenced under the laws.