ALBANY DEMOCRATS OFFER A PLAN TO REVISE ROCKEFELLER DRUG LAWS

The Democratic leadership of the State Assembly introduced legislation
today to revamp the state's mandatory drug sentencing laws, expanding
judicial discretion over the sentencing of drug felons and adding
thousands of treatment slots in the state prison system.

The bill, which picked up more than 50 sponsors, all Democrats, makes
official a proposal that the Assembly Democrats unveiled more than two
months ago. It falls far short of what many advocates had long been
urging: a total repeal of laws that give judges no discretion over
sentencing drug criminals.

Still, the Assembly bill stakes out what is now the most far-reaching
position on what promises to be a rancorous debate over changes in the
drug laws. Gov. George E. Pataki has proposed more limited discretion
in sentencing, while the Republican Senate bill has proposed to
finance treatment slots controlled by prosecutors, leaving judicial
discretion untouched.

Under the current Rockefeller-era laws, a sentence is based only on
the amount of drugs seized and the defendant's prior felony record.
Judges cannot take into account whether violence was involved or
whether the defendant was selling drugs to support an addiction. Under
the current law, only prosecutors can send drug felons to treatment
instead of prison. The state's district attorneys have lobbied hard to
preserve that right.

Specifically, the Assembly measure would finance 3,500 drug treatment
slots in 10 state prisons. It would also raise the thresholds for each
felony category. Currently, a defendant with two ounces of cocaine,
for instance, can be convicted of possession of a criminal substance
in the second degree; the Assembly bill would raise that to four ounces.

Most notably, the Assembly bill would accord sentencing discretion to
judges for almost all drug felonies. Only the most serious, the
so-called A-level felonies, would require the prosecutors' consent.

Advocates of revising the laws applauded the Assembly bill today.
"Given the politics of New York and the politics of Albany and
particularly given where the Assembly was even a year ago, it
represents significant movement on their part," said Deborah Small,
director of public policy of the Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy
Foundation, an advocacy group in Manhattan.