CUOMO OFFERS DRUG LAW REFORMS

Albany-- Plan Would Base Sentence On Role in Crime Rather Than On the
Weight of Narcotics Involved

Striving to separate himself from his opponents, Democratic gubernatorial
hopeful Andrew Cuomo on Monday unveiled a plan to reform the strict
Rockefeller Drug Laws that goes farther in some areas than proposals by the
governor and state Legislature.

Cuomo, the former federal housing secretary, is the first challenger of
Republican Gov. George Pataki to put out his own drug law reform plan --
although the outline he presented at a news conference in New York City was
short on details.

The heart of Cuomo's plan was a proposal to base sentencing of convicted
drug offenders on the role they played in a crime rather than the weight of
drugs they sold or possessed at the time of their arrest. The 1973
Rockefeller Drug Laws mandate long to life sentences for those convicted of
selling or possessing relatively small amounts of narcotics.

Cuomo said his plan would "restore rationality to our state's drug
policies," and he criticized Pataki for failing to reach a compromise on
reform with the Legislature. Opponents of Pataki's reform proposal say it
doesn't return enough discretion to judges and won't help low-level
offenders, the bulk of drug convicts.

Pataki spokesman Michael McKeon said drug law negotiations between the
governor and the Legislature are continuing. McKeon did not comment on
Cuomo's plan.

Steven Greenberg, a spokesman for Cuomo's Democratic opponent, state
Comptroller H. Carl McCall, said McCall has long supported drug law reform
but doesn't see the need to draw up his own plan.

"If the governor wanted real reform, we could have it today; all the
elements are there," Greenberg said.

Cuomo called for the repeal of mandatory minimum sentences for all
nonviolent, low-level drug offenders and an increase in penalties for
offenders who commit violent crimes with a deadly weapon. He said
sentencing discretion should be returned to judges and treatment should be
offered instead of prison for nonviolent offenders "when appropriate."

Cuomo did not offer details on how offenders would be determined nonviolent
or who would decide which offenders should be sent to treatment rather than
prison -- two central sticking points of the drug law reform debate. He
called for a creation of a "fast track" commission to address these issues
and establish sentencing guidelines.

Robert Gangi, executive director of the Correctional Association of New
York, a prison watchdog group, said Cuomo appeared to be "hedging his bets
by not quite calling for a full repeal." But, Gangi said, Cuomo's plan is
also "far more sweeping" than what has been proposed by Pataki and the
Legislature.

Albany County District Attorney Paul Clyne, a Democrat, dismissed much of
Cuomo's proposal, saying the role drug offenders played in the event that
led to their arrest already is considered by judges, prosecutors and
defense attorneys through the plea bargaining process.