PRISON - SENTENCE REFORM URGED

Study: State Too Harsh On Drug Users

Arizona could save $40 million by sending one out of five non-violent
inmates addicted to drugs to treatment programs instead of prison, a
non-profit advocacy group reported.

That proposal and others advocating prison reform in Arizona were part
of a report released Tuesday by Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a
Washington, D.C.-based non-profit group that commissioned a study of
the state's sentencing laws.

Maricopa County prosecutors hotly rejected the report, which declared
the state's justice system broken.

FAMM concluded that Arizona's system of long, mandatory sentences for
repeat offenders has cost the state millions, filled prisons with
mostly non-violent criminals, disproportionately sanctioned people of
color and done little to enhance public safety. The study was embraced
by at least two key Arizona legislators who are pushing to revise
Arizona's sentencing laws.

"We have a prison system in Arizona packed with low-level, non-violent
offenders," FAMM Executive Director Laura Sager said. While Arizona
has the highest incarceration rate in the West, "it has had the least
success in reducing crime rates of its neighbors."

Sager called on the governor and Legislature to establish a
high-level, nonpartisan commission to study and revise Arizona's
sentencing laws. In the meantime, the state should give judges the
power to set aside mandatory sentences when appropriate. And it should
begin reclassifying some low-level offenses to cut back prison time
and support more community-based alternatives, such as substance-abuse
treatment for drugs, drunken driving and other non-violent offenses.

"We do have a prison crisis in Arizona, not just because of beds but
because of how we incarcerate," said Rep. Bill Konopnicki, R-Safford,
who leads a House work group studying sentencing reform. "It is time
to stop warehousing people, it is time to start treating people and
making a difference in their lives."

Barnett Lotstein, special assistant Maricopa County attorney, said
County Attorney Rick Romley and his office reject the notion that
there is a problem in the state's sentencing system. He called FAMM's
report "obviously biased" with the aim of legalizing or
decriminalizing drugs.

"We are in favor of mandatory sentences as they exist in Arizona,"
Lotstein said, adding that they impart consistency. "The people who
are in prison, for the most part, deserve to be there."

In its report, FAMM argues that many prisoners incarcerated for
low-level, non-violent offenses are there because they commit petty
crimes to support their drug habits. Those prisoners would be better
served by community-based or residential treatment, which cost less
than the average $20,000 a year it costs to keep someone in prison.
The report also criticizes the process by which repeat offenders are
given much longer "enhanced" sentences. Those enhancements, which
cause the prison sentence to be significantly inflated, do not take
into consideration whether previous felonies were violent or not, or
related to the current offense.

For example, Stanley Holmes, a 45-year-old Mississippi native, was
sentenced to 10 years in prison after being arrested for the third
time in one year for possessing a small amount of crack cocaine. He
received no drug treatment between arrests.

"I think it was way extensive," Holmes told The Republic about the
sentence, which he said the Board of Executive Clemency recently
recommended be reduced by the governor to three years. "I was not (to
the point) that I could go back into society, work and maintain my
taxpayer, citizen status and use rehabilitation."

FAMM points out in its report that Arizona's sentencing laws also do
not distinguish between addicts who sell a small amount of drugs to
fund their habit and those who are drug "kingpins."

For example, a drug addict convicted of selling a gram of cocaine with
a previous possession charge faces a minimum sentence of 4.5 years. A
major drug dealer caught selling a kilo of cocaine faces a minimum
sentence of three years.

Lotstein said enhanced sentences are appropriate for repeat offenders
like Holmes.

"The community has a right to be protected from people who commit
crimes over and over again," he said.

FAMM said it hopes to work closely with state leaders to study and
revise Arizona's sentencing policies, as it did recently in Michigan
where most mandatory minimum drug statutes were repealed.