DRUG POLICY GROUP OPPOSES TOUGHER THREE-STRIKES LAW

A report released yesterday urged officials to invest in treating drug
offenders and keeping the mentally ill out of prison, instead of
adopting harsher measures in the wake of last year's Cheshire home
invasion murders.

The report, commissioned by the Drug Policy Alliance, which seeks
reform of tough drug laws, estimates that at least two-thirds of the
state's prisoners have serious addictions. It recommends the state
continue policies it began before the Cheshire murders sparked a
temporary ban on parole and calls for a three-strikes law for repeat
offenders.

In the Cheshire case, two burglars on parole killed a woman and her
two daughters during a July home invasion. The victims' family have
argued publicly for three-strikes legislation.

"What happened in Cheshire was an enormous tragedy," said Judith
Greene of the Brooklyn-based research firm Justice Strategies, which
wrote the report. "But it's never a good idea to create policies
around an individual event as though it were typical."

The report warns that Connecticut's prison population could grow by
thousands unless the state diverts more offenders out of the prison
system. It also calls for the abolition of drug laws carrying long
mandatory prison terms and harsher punishments for offenders caught
with drugs near schools, day care centers and housing projects.

In January, Gov. M. Jodi Rell signed a landmark criminal justice
reform bill that created longer sentences for burglary suspects and
authorized spending millions on treating some offenders outside of
prison.

Focusing on treatment is the only way to trim the prison population,
which reached record highs near 20,000 after Rell's parole ban, the
report concluded.

The state's Office of Policy and Management has estimated that the
prison population will dip back below 19,000 by early 2009 if parole
rates return to their normal levels and the state funds hundreds of
new halfway house beds, as planned.

At least one leading lawmaker has called that projection optimistic,
and a separate estimate shows that the prison population could rise as
high as 25,000 by 2012.

"Unless measures are quickly taken to bring prison populations back
under control, taxpayers are likely to find themselves burdened with
excessive costs," the report warns.

Its authors recommended the state turn down the so-called
three-strikes law mandating automatic life sentences for defendants
convicted of a third violent felony.

Democrats have blocked passage of several three-strikes proposals,
arguing they wouldn't lead to life sentences in all cases because
prosecutors can decide whether to pursue life sentences.

Democrats also have said the proposals could cost the state at least
$100 million in annual prison expenses.

Supporters, mostly Republicans, have disputed that cost estimate and
said repeat felons do not serve enough prison time now.

Neither suspect in the Cheshire case would have fallen under a
three-strikes law before the murders.

The Drug Policy Alliance report released yesterday goes far beyond
three strikes in calling for a complete rethinking of the state's drug
laws. The alliance has been a longtime critic of laws that carry
mandatory minimum sentences ranging, from two to 10 years for several
drug crimes.

Those laws include bans on selling or possessing drugs within 1,500
feet of a public housing project, school or day care center.

Critics, including the Connecticut Criminal Defense Lawyers
Association, have said the laws have a disproportionate effect on
minorities and cover nearly every part of urban areas.

About two-thirds of people arrested statewide on mandatory minimum
drug charges are Hispanic or black, according to a 2005 report by the
state General Assembly's Legislative Program Review and Investigations
Committee.

The only large areas in Stamford not within 1,500 feet of a public
housing project, school or day care center are Long Island Sound and
the region north of the Merritt Parkway.

Pushes to change the state's drug laws have failed in each of the last
two legislative sessions.

But the state has been on the cutting edge when it comes to keeping
the mentally ill out of prison, according to the Drug Policy Alliance
report and findings by several other non-profit organizations.

Judges approved the release of more than 7,000 offenders under a state
program that diverts the mentally ill from jail.

A new law created a special probationary program that will allow some
mentally ill offenders to have their arrest records wiped clean.

The state should consider similar options for the approximately 3,000
to 4,000 inmates with serious or moderate mental health problems, the
report concluded.

"The state should keep its focus on things that are smart and
effective," Greene said.