BAR ASSOCIATION URGES BETTER-FAITH DRUG REFORM TALKS

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Gov. George Pataki and the state Legislature risk
squandering a "crucial opportunity" because they are unable to make real
compromises over the Rockefeller drug laws, the state Bar Association's
president said Tuesday.

A. Thomas Levin of Mineola said the high-level talks over easing the
harshest of the mandatory drug-sentencing laws have devolved into a
"disappointing duel of dead-on-arrival proposals" by Pataki and state
Assembly Democrats.

"Rather than move forward in a way likely to forge agreement on this issue,
the governor and the Assembly are each advocating positions they know will
never be approved by the other side," Levin said.

Pataki last week issued a new reform proposal, which the Republican governor
said would result in hundreds of inmates being released from state prison
and thousands of other prisoners having their sentences reduced. The head of
the Democrats who dominate the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, immediately
rejected the proposal as ineffectual.

On Monday, Silver accused Pataki of being interested in a "sound bite" on
Rockefeller law reform rather than changes to the system.

Talks among Pataki, Silver and Senate Republican Majority Leader Joseph
Bruno failed to produce a reform package before the Legislature left Albany
for the summer on June 20. Pataki even invited hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons
into a marathon private negotiating session among the leaders, but Simmons
could not break the logjam.

Pataki, Silver and Bruno all insist they are intent on changing the
mandatory drug laws, which were adopted at the urging of former Gov. Nelson
Rockefeller in the mid-1970s in response to widespread heroin use in urban
areas of the state. Critics now say the laws have funneled too many
nonviolent inmates into state prisons instead of giving them access to drug
treatment.

The Drug Policy Alliance, a group pushing for drug law reforms favored by
Assembly Democrats, said Pataki's proposal takes a harder line on some
sentencing provisions that the governor himself has previously favored.

The group said the governor's bill also fails to give sentencing discretion
back to judges.

According to Levin, the Bar Association's proposal to reform the drug laws
represents the common ground that Pataki and legislative leaders have so far
been unable to reach.

The lawyers' proposal would give judges discretion in some cases to divert
nonviolent offenders away from prison and into treatment; allow current and
future prisoners judicial review of their sentences; double weight
requirements for all felony charges and increase penalties for drug
"kingpins" to up to 25 years to life.