A NEEDLESS RITUAL

Once again, holiday clemency shows the need for drug law reform

It is a welcome but disconcerting ritual: Each year, the governor of New
York grants clemency to a selected few prisoners whose model conduct is
judged worthy enough to earn early release. And each year for the past few
years, the inmates have turned out to be serving long sentences under the
state's unduly harsh Rockefeller Drug Laws.

It needn't be this way. How long must this slow, and painful, ritual
continue before state lawmakers get the message: It's time, long past time,
to reform the Rockefeller statutes. They have failed to attain their goal
of discouraging drug crime in the state. They have failed to lock up drug
kingpins for long periods, as was the intent of the laws when they were
enacted in 1973. Instead, they have served to subject many small-time
dealers and first-time offenders to Draconian sentences -- in clear
violation of the principle that punishment should fit the crime.

The latest two offenders to win clemency are Samuel Roldan, 49, who has
served 13 years and five months of a 15-year-to-life sentence imposed in
1988 for first-degree sale of a controlled substance in New York City, and
Richard Seager, 55, who has served 15 years of a 17- year-to-life sentence
for first-degree possession of a controlled substance in Oneida County.

Both men were cited for exemplary conduct while in prison, including
participation in substance abuse programs. Both testify to the need for the
state to place more emphasis on rehabilitation.

The Rockefeller Drug Laws have more than their share of critics, ranging
from reform groups like the Correctional Association of New York, to many
judges themselves. Indeed, the correctional organization has just released
a compilation of quotes form judges over the years -- almost all of them
expressing frustration in having no choice but to impose long sentences
even when the circumstances clearly do not warrant them.

Yet the laws remain the favorite bargaining tool for the state's
prosecutors, who insist they need these statutes to help win plea bargains
and convictions.

That argument would hold up if there were some evidence to indicate that
hardened kingpins are being thrown in jail. Instead, what more often occurs
is that a first-time offender will plead to a lesser charge rather than
risk a long sentence under the Rockefeller guidelines.

And for those inmates who take the risk? They can wind up with 15-to- life
and 17-to-life, as Mr. Roldan and Mr. Seager did -- punishment, by the way,
that far exceeds the 5-to-10 years that former Taliban fighter John Walker
might face if convicted of aiding the enemy.

How can state lawmakers justify this system any longer? The Rockefeller
Drug Laws don't serve justice. They insult it.