DRUG LAW REFORM CAN HELP STATE CASH WOES

By ROBERT GANGI

Given Governor Pataki's frequent calls for drug law reform, it's
disappointing that his state budget proposal makes no reference to the
significant savings that would result. The governor's plan does include a
recommendation that would result in the early release of up to 1,300
inmates who were convicted of non-violent offenses and had good prison records.

Why are reform proponents disappointed? Because the Pataki measure would
save only $20 million, a relatively small amount when put up against an
estimated $11.5 billion budget deficit. And because the governor's proposal
still fails to address the fundamental problem of costly mandatory
sentencing laws.

We hope that New York's fiscal crisis will lead to the repeal of the
Rockefeller-era drug laws. These 1973 statutes have caused rather than
solved problems, including draining state resources by fueling skyrocketing
prison costs. During the past 20 years, New York's annual prison operating
expenditures have jumped from about $450 million to more than $2 billion.

The laws' harshest provision requires that judges impose a prison term of
no less than 15 years to life for anyone convicted of selling 2 ounces or
possessing 4 ounces of a narcotic substance. The penalties apply without
regard to the circumstances of the offense or the individual's character or
background.

Prison terms under these laws are based not on the offenders' role in
narcotics transactions, but on the amount of drugs in their possession at
the time of arrest. The kingpins know enough not to carry drugs. It is the
foot soldiers who get caught literally holding the bag and face long, hard
prison time.

This provision of the law actually provides an incentive to police and
prosecutors to concentrate on low-level dealers and users, rather than on
the drug trade's major profiteers.

Although studies show that the majority of the people who use and sell
drugs are white, more than 94 percent of inmates doing time in New York for
the sale or possession of narcotics are people of color. The drug laws and
other law enforcement policies that produce this disproportionate outcome
have a devastating impact on communities of color -- by uprooting
individuals and breaking up families.

New York's politicians have ignored all that. Narrow economic and political
concerns have blocked reform.

Since 1982, the state has opened 38 prisons, all in rural, mainly white,
mainly economically depressed areas, all represented by Republican state
senators. At the beginning of 2000, 93 percent of all state inmates were
confined in prisons situated in Republican Senate districts. Facilities in
these areas receive more than $1.1 billion annually for operating expenses.
They employ almost 30,000 people.

In addition, Albany policymakers have been unwilling to take on the state's
district attorneys. The drug laws remove discretion from the judge and
concentrate it in the prosecutor's office. Whoever sets the charge, -- the
district attorney -- controls the outcome of the case.

New York's prosecutors have aggressively opposed any proposal to seriously
amend the drug laws because they are protecting their preserve. Many
politicians, wary of the "soft on crime" tag, fear speaking out against the
self-interested posture of law enforcement officials.

Countering these obstacles is the cold hard evidence of the laws' financial
extravagance. It costs New York more than $610 million annually to confine
more than 19,000 drug offenders, most of whom have no history of violent,
predatory behavior. The price of building the prisons to confine them comes
to about $2 billion.

Moreover, alternatives are available that save money and cut crime. Study
after study has shown that treatment is not only much less costly than
imprisonment, but also more successful in reducing the crime associated
with the narcotics trade.

Also relevant to this debate is the strong drug law reform movement that
has taken shape in recent years. On wintry days in 2001 and 2002, several
thousand people rallied in Albany under the "Drop the Rock" banner, the
largest protests on a criminal justice issue at the state capital in memory.

For the first time since the laws were enacted, mainstream political
figures Andrew Cuomo and Thomas Golisano, while running for governor last
year, publicly endorsed repeal. Civic and religious leaders, civil rights
organizations and editorial boards of newspapers throughout the state have
promoted change. An October New York Times poll indicated that 79 percent
of New Yorkers favor a return to judicial discretion in drug cases.

So far, however, the political "cover" that facts and public support
provide has been insufficient -- the state's elected officials have
mustered neither the will nor the wisdom to repeal the laws.

We have known the truth about these laws for a long time, that they are
unjust, ineffective, racially biased and enormously wasteful. Will the
undeniable need and desire to cut the cost of government in this difficult
financial period finally lead New York's policymakers to do the right thing
and eliminate the state's drug statutes?