COPING; DRUG LAWS HURT CHILDREN TOO

THE three young people came from Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn, and
what they had in common was that one or both of their parents had spent
years in prison under the 1973 Rockefeller drug laws.

Those laws set stiff penalties for drug possession and use, swelling the
state prison population to 70,000 today from 13,000 in 1973. On Tuesday, as
part of the Drop the Rock campaign to repeal the laws, about 35 children
are to go before legislators in Albany to tell their stories.

The children gave a preview of those stories recently when they gathered in
the office of Robert Gangi, the executive director of the Correctional
Association of New York, a prison watchdog and policy group. The
association is one of many religious, women's and prisoners' rights groups
seeking what they call a more humane and cost-effective and less racially
biased way to fight drugs.

Ninety-four percent of the drug offenders in New York State prisons are
black or Latino, even though studies show that most drug users and sellers
are white.

The children talked about the human cost. They were fuzzy on some details,
but what emerged were portraits of parents with drug problems. Imprisonment
created a wave of problems for the children, as grandparents or the foster
system stepped in.

Using children to humanize complex political and social issues is an old
tactic. But Drop the Rock is a noble effort with special resonance in many
black and Latino neighborhoods, where generation after generation of
mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers have been sent to prison for long
stretches. Drug policy experts say many of those convicted belonged in
treatment, school or work programs instead. The children's stories are not
just reasons for advocating the repeal of the Rockefeller laws. They are
vivid reminders of the lingering effects of drug use and the persistence of
the crack epidemic of the 80's. That horrific epoch fractured families,
caused neurological damage in children and produced high rates of crime and
AIDS infection.

"We have eliminated whole generations of parents," said Dennis Walcott,
president of the New York Urban League. "People lose sight of the problem
because of a good economy, but with the economy slowing down, I'm not sure
what will happen."

Leonette A., 13, who lives in Manhattan, said her mother went to prison for
unknowingly holding drugs for a drug-dealing friend. It was the same year
that Leonette's father died. Her brothers were 2 and 3 at the time and
began acting out as they got older.

Leonette, an eighth grader, said she became severely withdrawn after being
sent to live with her grandparents, who had a hard time handling three
young children. She also remembers hitting her classmates for no reason.

Sha-king Graham, 19, from the South Bronx, said both his parents were drug
addicts who were in and out of prison for years for drug selling and
possession. He was born addicted to crack and had problems learning to
read. He was abused in a series of foster homes, he said.

After he and his four sisters were left on their own, one sister was killed
in a confrontation with the police only minutes after her drug-dealing
boyfriend gave her a gun to hold.

"I've seen it all," Mr. Graham said. "I think I just numbed myself to my
surroundings."

Those hoping that the Rockefeller laws will be repealed say too many of the
people swept up by the laws were like these parents: nonviolent drug
addicts who desperately needed treatment. It costs $32,000 a year to keep
an inmate in prison, compared with $17,000 to $21,000 for residential drug
treatment.

Mr. Gangi said no one associated with Drop the Rock thought that people who
use or sell drugs should go scot-free just because they had children.
Rather, he said, a more nuanced approach was needed.

One of the toughest provisions of the Rockefeller law mandates a
15-year-to-life sentence to anyone, even first-time offenders, convicted of
selling two ounces or possessing four ounces of cocaine or heroin.

Nine days ago, nearly two months after he pledged to loosen the Rockefeller
laws, Gov. George E. Pataki released a detailed bill that would sharply
reduce some prison drug sentences, but would also add new penalties for
marijuana convictions. Last Monday, the State Assembly responded with its
own proposal, which includes greater judicial discretion and more drug
treatment options.

Critics of the old law hope that whatever bill is finally adopted takes
into account these things that cannot be quantified: the broken families,
the disrupted lives.