DRUG LAW REFORM ADVOCATES FAIL TO BREAK LOGJAM

Albany-- Group Spends Time With Pataki, Silver in Bid to Get Mandatory
Sentencing Rules Changed

Relatives of offenders serving long prison sentences for selling or
possessing relatively small amounts of narcotics left the Capitol
disappointed on Thursday after traveling to Albany in hopes of breaking the
logjam holding up reform of the Rockefeller Drug Laws.

About a dozen members of a group called Mothers of the New York Disappeared
met with Republican Gov. George Pataki for more than an hour and spent
about 40 minutes with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan. The
group's spokesman, Randy Credico, said the talks failed to move Pataki and
the two houses of the Legislature closer to a reform deal.

"We want the governor to continue to work with the speaker and come up with
something that's palatable to all of the parties involved, and not just the
district attorneys," Credico said.

Elaine Bartlett, 42, of Manhattan, said she blames Pataki for the failure
to reach an agreement on softening the 1973 laws, which set long mandatory
minimum sentences for selling two ounces of a narcotic or possessing four
ounces. Bartlett, who served 16 years in prison after being convicted of
selling four ounces of cocaine in Albany -- her first offense -- said her
sentence was too harsh and resulted in her estrangement from her five children.

"Right now we feel like they're playing with our lives and our families'
lives," said Bartlett, who received clemency from Pataki in 2000 but is
still waiting for the release of her husband, Nathan Brooks, who was
sentenced to 25 years in prison for participating in the Albany drug sale.

In a move widely viewed by reform advocates as a kowtow to the state's
prosectors, the GOP-controlled Senate on Wednesday passed a truncated
reform bill that included no additional money for drug treatment and would
restructure sentences only for the highest level, or Class A, drug
offenders. Opponents say the bill would only affect a small number of people.

Silver and other Assembly Democrats staunchly refused to even consider the
Senate's new bill, which Pataki is backing. In a prepared statement, the
governor said: "This legislation would reunite hundreds of families in a
matter of weeks ... The Assembly should not hold these families hostage."

Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, accused each
other -- and in Silver's case, the governor -- of refusing to negotiate for
political reasons. Some hypothesized Silver doesn't want to pass the
Senate's new reform bill because it will give Pataki and Republican
senators a victory to tout in an election year while letting them save face
with conservatives who want elected officials who are tough on crime.

"They'll pass this superficial reform and then there will be no incentive
for them to come back to the table," said Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, D-Buffalo.