AN IMPROVED DRUG PLAN IN ALBANY

Gov. George Pataki made a fresh offer this week to reform the draconian
drug laws that have clogged New York State's prisons with more than 10,000
nonviolent drug users, many of them serving mandatory sentences for
relatively minor offenses. The governor's latest proposal, a distinct
improvement over the plan he issued in January, would allow thousands more
defendants to undergo drug treatment rather than serve long prison terms.
It should breathe new life into a flagging effort in Albany to revamp the
unjust and unworkable Rockefeller drug laws enacted three decades ago.

The governor's office has not yet drafted his new legislation, making it
difficult to assess in detail. But as described by Mr. Pataki's aides, the
revised plan would address one of the main flaws in his original bill,
which was that it left out the largest group of drug defendants. The new
plan would include treatment options for so-called class B felons charged
with selling drugs, the category that includes most nonviolent addicts
arrested in "buy and bust" operations. Such felonies now carry mandatory
sentences as long as 25 years, but the governor would provide a chance at
substantially reduced sentences through treatment.

The revised plan would also wisely expand the scope of judicial discretion,
reducing the role of prosecutors in deciding which defendants would qualify
for treatment instead of mandatory sentences. That will anger district
attorneys who opposed even the governor's more modest proposal on the
grounds that stiff sentences are needed to reduce crime and induce plea
bargains. But in the interests of justice, impartial judges should have
maximum discretion to consider the circumstances of the crime and the
offender's background.

Aides to the governor estimate that the changes would give 2,800 defendants
each year a chance to avoid or cut short mandatory prison sentences. It is
unclear how much such expanded treatment would cost. But there is a broad,
bipartisan consensus in Albany that expanding drug treatment programs would
be cheaper and more effective in reducing crime than continuing to pack the
prisons with nonviolent drug offenders.

There are problematic elements to Mr. Pataki's new plan. It is a mistake
for him to link reform of the drug laws to other policies that he knows are
unacceptable to Assembly Democrats, such as imposing stiffer penalties for
some marijuana charges. Legislators should also look hard at his plan to
require Class B offenders to start their treatment in prison before being
released to residential or community-based treatment. But the governor's
proposal should revive the effort to improve a flawed and inhumane system.