PATAKI NEARING DRUG LAW REFORM

Albany -- Plan Would Ease Penalties For Nonviolent Crime, Stiffen Them For
Dealers With Guns

Gov. George Pataki's latest proposal to reform the Rockefeller Drug Laws
would give judges some discretion in sentencing nonviolent offenders with
drug addictions but force them to be more strict with dealers who carry guns.

The plan would also expand funding for drug treatment programs that provide
eligible offenders an alternative to prison. But it remains unclear how
much will be allocated in the 2002-03 budget, according to state Director
of Criminal Justice Services Chauncey Parker.

The new proposal does not yet exist on paper, but Parker called it "the
most comprehensive reform" since the laws were enacted in 1973.

The reforms would not apply to those currently incarcerated under the drug
laws.

Robert Gangi, director of the Correctional Association of New York, a
prison watchdog organization, said judicial discretion is still too limited
and called the lack of retroactivity "a serious problem. It should be a
deal breaker."

The laws, which critics say were a failure in curbing illegal drugs, set
mandatory sentences of 15 to 25 years to life for possession or sale of
several ounces of narcotics, and generally do not allow judges to consider
extenuating circumstances, such as offenders' records or whether they would
benefit from treatment.

Pataki's proposal also calls for determinate sentences -- a fixed number of
years rather than a range -- for all drug felons, eliminating the parole
board's role. There would be no life sentences under the plan.

Offenders deemed ineligible for treatment by a district attorney could have
that decision overturned by a judge, a potential problem for prosecutors,
said Albany County District Attorney Paul Clyne.

"Every garden variety drug dealer is going to claim addiction,' he said.