A CALL FOR SHORTER DRUG SENTENCES

OLYMPIA - Despite a call from key law-enforcement officials to ease
Washington's drug laws, some conservative legislators said yesterday
they will fight such efforts.

"I'm not willing to go there," said Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn. "I
think this is the wrong direction."

King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng and others involved in the state's
criminal-justice system converged on Olympia yesterday to support
legislation that would reduce sentences for some drug offenses and
use the savings in prison expenses to expand local drug-treatment
programs.

In separate hearings, Maleng told Senate and House members the state
has benefited from the tough anti-drug laws that were passed during
the late 1980s. But he said not enough emphasis was placed on
treating drug offenders.

"It is time to move our drug policy in a new direction ... to go back
and renew a commitment to treatment," Maleng said.

Maleng has proposed chopping six months off the 21- to 27-month
minimum sentence for making or delivering cocaine or heroin. The plan
would save an estimated $50 million in prison costs over the next six
years - money that would be used to boost local treatment programs.

Washington's prison chief, two judges and an official from the
state's Sentencing Guidelines Commission also spoke in favor of the
bill.

And lawmakers heard some new findings about the effectiveness of drug
treatment at reducing crime.

After reviewing 71 drug-treatment studies conducted nationwide over
the past two decades, the Washington State Institute for Public
Policy recently concluded treatment programs can reduce "criminal
recidivism rates" by 3 percent to 9 percent. The institute concluded
states can save $2 for every $1 spent on effective treatment programs.

Still, Roach called Maleng's approach an "expensive gamble."

"Why do we want to send them back onto the street six months sooner?"
Roach said after Maleng's appearance before the Senate Judiciary
Committee. "That means they're back out there, back in our homes,
stealing things to support their habit."

The legislation also faces opposition from some House Republicans.

"This is clearly the first step toward legalizing these terrible
drugs," said Rep. Jack Cairnes, R-Renton. "I just think it's wrong."

Some, however, blasted Maleng for not going far enough. Some want to
cut a full year off the drug sentences. Others favor going as far as
California did last fall, when voters overwhelmingly approved a
measure that requires treatment instead of incarceration for first-
and second-time drug offenders.

Gerard Sheehan, lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union of
Washington, said Maleng's approach still relies too heavily on
incarceration and would not free up enough money for treatment. He
told lawmakers that his organization, which has backing from
investment billionaire George Soros, will try to block the bill.

Rob Killian, a Seattle doctor who sponsored the 1998 initiative that
legalized marijuana for medical use, said lawmakers will face a
citizen initiative like California's if they do not approve more
significant reforms than those Maleng proposes.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Adam Kline said he is "very open to going
further" than Maleng in reducing sentences but is not sure such a
plan would find enough support in the Legislature.

"Long sentences do not, do not deter crimes," said Kline, D-Seattle.
"And in no cases do they deter less than when the crime is driven by
a need, like drugs."

But Maleng said his proposal was a bottom line for him and others in
law enforcement.

"We should not go farther than that," he said.