DRUG LAW REFORM HOPES UNDIMMED

Albany -- Hundreds Rally to Keep Pressure on Lawmakers to Change
Rockefeller Drug Laws

Almost one year to the day after they gathered in the cold on the state
Capitol steps seeking reform of the Rockefeller Drug Laws, hundreds of
activists returned Tuesday to find lawmakers essentially no closer to an
agreement than in 2001.

Despite this fact, and despite the steady drizzle, supporters of the "Drop
the Rock" campaign, which favors doing away with the 29-year-old laws,
appeared undaunted.

"We will come here every year until effective change is brought about,"
said Koretta McClendon of the Women's Prison Association.

The 1973 laws set mandatory prison sentences of 15-to-25 years to life for
possession or sale of several ounces of narcotics. In many cases, judges
can't consider extenuating circumstances, such as offenders' records or
whether they are addicts who might benefit from drug treatment.

Reform supporters say the drug laws disproportionately affect minorities,
pointing out that 94 percent of the drug offenders in state prisons are
African American or Hispanic. They also maintain the cost of treating an
addict outside the prison system -- about $21,000 a year -- is cheaper than
incarceration, about $32,000 per inmate.

Last year, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, Senate Majority
Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, and Republican Gov. George Pataki each
offered reform proposals. But the effort was derailed by a budget stalemate
and relegated to the back burner by the Sept. 11 attacks.

"Quite frankly, you should not be here today, and I should not either; the
time to reform the antiquated Rockefeller Drug Laws is long overdue,"
Albany Roman Catholic Bishop Howard Hubbard told the demonstrators Tuesday.

So far this year, neither house has passed a drug law reform bill and state
leaders have not had substantial discussions on the issue, officials said.
But Silver on Tuesday said he and Pataki have agreed to talk soon.

"We've had several talks about the differences in our approaches, and the
governor said we should sit down and talk about that and get that
resolved," Silver said.

Bruno blamed the Assembly for holding up progress and said: "We have a
clear proposal out there (that) we're prepared to pass."

Roughly 28 percent of New York's 67,000 state prison inmates are drug
offenders, said Pataki spokeswoman Caroline Quartararo. About 77 percent
have been convicted of prior felonies.

Between 1994 and 2001, there has been a 17 percent drop in the number of
drug offenders in New York's prisons, Quartararo said. She attributed the
decline to alternative sentencing programs like the district attorney-run
"DTAP" program or drug courts, which already exist despite the debate over
Rockefeller Drug Law reform.