GOP LAWMAKERS LOOK FOR ADVICE ON DRUG WAR

Panel members listen to testimonials during the House Republican
Policy Committee meeting at the Pennsylvania College of Technology on Tuesday.

We need to build more jail cells" and impose "significant mandatory
sentences" whenever gun and drug crimes occur together.

These were two of the get-tough recommendations local law enforcement
gave to a group of Republican lawmakers during the first of a series
of hearings planned across the Commonwealth by the state House of
Representatives Republican Policy Committee.

The committees chairman, Rep. Mike Turzai of Allegheny County,
brought the panel to the Pennsylvania College of Technology's
Professional Development Center Tuesday for almost four hours of
testimony that included input from both the law enforcement and
treatment-prevention professions.

The event was co-hosted by local state representatives Steven W.
Cappelli, city, and Garth Everett, Muncy, and began with a pointed
critique by Capt. Kenneth Hill, commanding officer of Troop F and a
former undercover state police drug investigator.

Hill set the tone by calling for tougher penalties and more prison
space, saying Drug Court programs are worthwhile but should
concentrate on younger, non-violent offenders and be a second, but
last chance to turn drug offenders around.

He said the state should also create sentencing standards similar to
those in place in the federal system with significant mandatory
enhancements for gun and drug crimes and "a no-bail clause for those
determined to be a danger to the community."

According to Hill, in the long run it will prove cheaper to build and
staff new prisons than the cost of allowing the drug problem to go unchecked.

Others testifying included city Police Chief Gary Whiteman and Jersey
Shore Chief Marty Jeirles.

Jeirles said his borough of about 4,500 people has seen drug arrests double.

Whiteman urged the county government to make a commitment to retain
its experienced prosecutors and support staff in the District
Attorney's Office and suggested the county has too few seasoned
prosecutors -- a comment that set a theme which would resurface when
Chief County Det. Lanny Reed and Det. Ed McCoy testified.

According to all three men, the District Attorney's Office is
currently understaffed and the staffing issues are among the reasons
the county drug task force will soon pass from McCoy's supervision to
the control of the State Attorney General's Office.

Cappelli asked for insight into the cuts that have taken place within
the District Attorney's staff and was told they included two
attorneys, two clerical positions and one detective's position.

"The cut in manpower for the District Attorney's Office can't be
doing them any good," interjected Jeirles, who said Jersey Shore's
own police force is "overwhelmed at times" by the scope of what it
must deal with.

"Everything that happens in Williamsport is happening in Jersey Shore
. . . on a smaller scale," he said.

County Judge Nancy Butts and Magisterial District Judge Allen P. Page
confirmed that the county's prosecutors are stretched thin and have a
hard time getting to all the courtroom proceedings and preliminary
hearings that must be covered and still having time to prepare their cases.

McCoy said the only full-time drug task force members currently
working are himself and one city office.

"It becomes too overwhelming to even keep a handle on," he added.

Reed, a 37-year law enforcement veteran was blunt. "I've got some
real hard feelings about this, he said, "because I've been involved
in it so long."

He said the drug problem is "everybody's problem" and funding needs
to be found to deal with it.

"If we don't allocate the money (to apprehend, prosecute and arrest
drug offenders) what's next?" he added.

The session ended with testimony from three people involved with what
the hearings agenda identified as "community aspects."

Rocky Boone, executive director of The Center; Karen Tindal,
operations director at the White Deer Valley Drug and Alcohol
Treatment Center, and Geoff Arthur, executive director of Valley
Prevention Services, focused on those whose lives are endangered or
destroyed by drugs and urged the state to remember the prevention
side of the struggle.

Arthur also urged the state to provide resources for more community
policing initiatives, and Tindal urged the state to make treatment
programs more accessible and affordable.

Boone noted that it costs $30,000 to $35,000 to keep an individual in
jail and suggested prevention programs traditionally cost much, much
less and, if successful, save lives and government resources.

He also said it's important that the community welcomes its young and
provide them with a sense of belonging.

"Because if we don't," he added, "the drug dealers will."

Other participants in the hearing were Rep Jeff Pyle of Armstrong
County, Tina Pickett of Bradford County and Scott Hutchinson of Venango County.