KING COUNTY PROSECUTOR BACKS LOWER DRUG PENALTIES

In his 23 years as King County prosecutor, Norm Maleng has traveled
to Olympia countless times to testify about criminal-justice issues.

But his scheduled appearance before two committees tomorrow will make
history. Maleng, one of the state's longest serving Republican
politicians, is expected to support legislation that would reduce
prison time for drug dealers, scaling back penalties enacted a dozen
years ago in a sweeping antidrug act.

Maleng's advocacy underscores the extent to which police and
prosecutors acknowledge the need to reform the state's drug laws. And
they are pressing their own proposals before a citizens' initiative
could possibly reduce drug penalties even further.

"This is a dramatic program," said Dan Satterberg, chief of staff at
the King County Prosecutor's Office. Maleng was out of town last
week. "This is a big step for prosecutors and police to ask for a
reduction in punishment."

In closed-door meetings with attorneys and others concerned with
reforming drug laws, Maleng has likened his position to Richard Nixon
going to China: As a Republican law-enforcement official, he said he
was best able to win the confidence of wary legislators and police to
promote practical and strategic changes.

Why, nearly two decades after President Reagan called for a national
battle against drugs, is King County's top lawyer saying the justice
system should coerce dealers and addicts into treatment instead of
putting them in prison?

Some of the reasons can be traced back to the Omnibus Drug Act of
1989, the last time legislators revamped the state's drug laws.

The act raised the minimum punishment for dealing drugs to 21 months
from 13 months. Legislators also cracked down on dealers convicted
more than once. A dealer convicted four times would automatically
receive a 10-year sentence instead of a three-year sentence.

At the time, Mike Redman of the Washington Association of Prosecuting
Attorneys said drug-related violence had reached the level of a
street war.

"We've got areas of our community that are not safe, where government
is not able to honor its obligations to protect its citizens," he
testified before a Senate committee. "It has all the attributes of a
war, including gunfire."

The sharp increase in the number of drive-by shootings that year
seemed emblematic of the violent times. There were 152 drive-by
shootings in 1989, nearly triple the number in 1988.

"The feeling in 1989 was that the situation was getting way out of
hand," said Phil Talmadge, a former Democratic state legislator and
former state Supreme Court Justice who practices law in Seattle.

But drug-related violence largely abated in the 1990s. Today, Seattle
Police Department statisticians don't even track drive-by shootings.

"It's better now," said James Shaw, a longtime resident of the
Rainier Valley. In 1989, a bullet ripped through his house and landed
in his bedroom closet. Soon after, Shaw joined a neighborhood group
protesting the drugs and gunfire that were transforming his
once-tranquil street.

Now, Shaw rarely hears gunfire. "I see the guys hanging around, but I
don't see much violence," he said.

Twelve years ago, drugs coupled with violence prompted lawmakers to
pass harsh punishment. Since then, Talmadge and others have come to
consider drug addiction a public-health problem, in part because
neighborhoods are no longer hostage to gangs and dealers.

Although the level of violence has diminished, drug use has not,
according to most measures.

Last year, King County prosecutors filed 4,258 felony drug charges,
an all-time record. Drug cases now account for 38 percent of the
defendants passing through King County Superior Court.

As a result, an increasing number of people are serving time for
nonviolent drug crimes, penalties that often seem extreme compared
with other offenses.

For example, 39-year-old David Shaffer was sentenced to five years in
prison last year for a drunken-driving crash in Kenmore that killed a
Jefferson County woman. A few months earlier, David Cortez, 37,
received a five-year sentence for leading an undercover officer to a
dealer who sold 0.3 grams of heroin.

"There is some perspective 12 years after the Omnibus Drug Act that
these punishments are out of whack with rape and vehicular homicide,"
said Satterberg.

But the Prosecutor's Office does not advocate decriminalizing drugs.
Nor does it support the kind of change approved by California voters
last year, which dictates mandatory treatment for drug defendants.

In fact, the California initiative spurred Maleng to address drug
laws this session.

"We looked South and didn't like what we saw," said Satterberg.

Maleng wants drug laws to remain on the books to compel defendants to
choose between incarceration and treatment.

While many defendants have that option today - and most take jail
instead of counseling - Maleng wants to transform the
criminal-justice system, so that it offers expanded treatment options
along with the threat of punishment.

"The criminal-justice system has a role to play. It's shifting to be
an effective intervention point to get addicts into treatment," said
Satterberg.

Maleng's proposal, which has been introduced in the House and the
Senate, would lop six months off the current 21- to 27-month minimum
sentence for first-time offenders charged with manufacture or
"delivery" of cocaine or heroin, but not methamphetamine. Maleng also
supports a 31- to 41-month sentencing range for defendants convicted
of their fourth drug offense, instead of the 10-year penalty enacted
in 1989.

The measure and several other bills that would reduce drug sentences
have drawn criticism from Yakima County Prosecutor Jeff Sullivan, who
contends the current law is part of an important arsenal in the war
on drugs.

For King County Bar Association President Fred Noland, there is a
simple reason Maleng and others in law-enforcement are talking about
changes.

"What we've been doing has not worked," he said. "In terms of cutting
down on the use of drugs, it's proven to be a failed strategy."

After writing an editorial in the October edition of the King County
Bar Bulletin that questioned current drug policy, Noland helped
convene a series of groups to study the laws and offer alternatives.

While Noland supports Maleng's efforts in Olympia, he faults the
prosecutor for not embracing more sweeping changes.

"He is the unlikely source of new ideas, but the things he's talking
about are pretty timid," said Noland. "But I applaud what he's doing."