NEW DRUG SENTENCE LAW WORTH IT, DESPITE FLAW

Although it has generated controversy, a proposed new law that offers
alternatives to prison for first-time drug offenders is an important step
forward in rationalizing how we deal with these cases.

If nothing else, the new law highlights the pressing need for a greater
number and variety of treatment options.

Today, there is little money available for treatment and a woefully small
number of facilities capable of handling treatment of criminal offenders.
City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle and former Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro say
the law may have major loopholes that will lead to undesirable, unintended
consequences. The new law would require that first-time nonviolent
offenders be put on probation and sent to treatment.

A judge will have to decide if the person's history and criminal record
suggest he or she is a "nonviolent" offender.

Under this law, Carlisle warns, a person with a lengthy criminal history
- perhaps even a violent criminal history - could argue for probation
if this was his first drug arrest.

Similarly, drug dealers who are arrested as users might also find a way
out. Those are legitimate concerns, and if in application the law appears
to be putting people on the streets who should be behind bars, it can be
amended.

But as a practical matter, it will be up to a judge to decide whether to
order treatment or a criminal trial and possible prison.

There is no reason to assume judges will be unreasonable. As the
prosecutors note, judges today have the authority to divert first-time
petty offenders and often do. This law simply makes that option a matter of
public policy.

A more pressing concern, in our view, is the lack of adequate treatment
facilities. Judges are more likely to refuse probation on those grounds.

In that context, it is promising that a coalition of state law enforcement
and health officials has been formed to launch a five-year program to
identify and fund the most promising alternatives to prison sentences.

Included in the "Interagency Council on Intermediate Sanctions" are
representatives of the Judiciary, the Health Department, Public Safety and
the attorney general.

Part of the work will be to develop a statistically valid profile of
individuals most likely to benefit from redirection and treatment over prison.

It is indisputable that treatment is a more humane and far less expensive
option than imprisonment. It is hardly a perfect cure-all, since even the
best treatment in the world will not always succeed.

But since prison so rarely succeeds, there really is no other choice.

The task now is to make the diversion approach work, and work properly.

And there is no reason why the work of the Interagency Council should take
five years.

This is critical work that has been far too long delayed.