PATAKI'S GETTING CLOSER TO ADEQUATE DRUG-LAW REFORM

The proposal to reform New York's Rockefeller drug laws that
Gov. George Pataki announced this week would open the door to
treatment for more drug-dependent offenders. That's good, but it stops
short of returning sentencing discretion to judges, where it belongs.

By revising a previous, less flexible proposal, the governor has
demonstrated a commitment to reform. But drug offenders would still
face mandatory prison time under his latest plan. Any reform that
fails to allow judges to decide case-by-case whether prison or
treatment is more appropriate for an individual defendant and crime is
inadequate tinkering around the edges.

Pataki and Assembly Democrats have both proposed reducing the current
mandatory 15-year-to-life sentences for possession of four or more
ounces of a controlled substance. They part company on how the law
should treat less serious drug offenses, which make up the bulk of
cases in which prison is now automatic.

Pataki would require defendants with a previous drug conviction to
plead guilty to a felony before they could apply for a court approved
drug-abuse treatment program. If accepted into the program, offenders
could satisfy their mandatory prison sentences by successfully
completing nine months of treatment in prison, followed by six months
of residential treatment in the community and an additional six months
of outpatient treatment.

Assembly Democrats, in contrast, would give judges fairly unfettered
sentencing discretion and require drug testing and treatment for every
offender with a documented history of drug abuse. Judges could, and
likely would, send many offenders to prison. Anyone they allowed to
enter treatment instead could be imprisoned if they washed out. It's
an enlightened approach that's worth trying.

At bottom, mandatory sentences reflect a fundamental distrust of
judges. But judges are paid to exercise judgment, to assess the facts
and circumstances of a case and determine the punishment that fits the
criminal and the crime. Mandatory sentences are cookie-cutter justice,
which is often no justice at all.