DEMOCRATS UNVEIL PLAN FOR ROCKEFELLER DRUG LAWS

ALBANY, May 23 -- 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.