NEW LAW DROPS SET PRISON TIME FOR DRUG DEALERS

Change Removes Mandatory 20 Years For Dealers, Gives Sentencing
Authority Back To Judges.

In a move that some call a retreat and others defend as a bow to
reality, Indiana lawmakers have done away with mandatory 20-year
sentences for many drug dealers.

"The legislature threw in the towel," Marion County Prosecutor Scott
Newman said. "I can't bargain for the kinds of penalties I used to be
able to get in drug cases because I don't have that hammer anymore."

Under the old law, anyone caught with at least 3 grams of cocaine --
that's about the size of three Sweet-and-Low packets -- would be charged
with dealing. If found guilty, they would receive an automatic sentence
of 20 years in prison.

With a new law that took effect Sunday, judges have the authority to
sentence drug dealers as they see fit. That might mean suspending all
prison time or sending convicted dealers to some kind of drug treatment
program.

"Finally the legislature woke up from the failed policies of the drug
war and decided to give judges back the discretion they should have
always had," said Larry Landis, executive director of the Indiana Public
Defenders Council.

"You shouldn't be able to put a gun to somebody's head and say plead
guilty or you're going to go to prison for a minimum 20 years."

Landis said the state's prison population has tripled in the past 20
years to more than 19,000 inmates, largely because of disproportionate
sentences handed to drug dealers.

Under the new rules, judges have the same discretion with drug dealers
that they have when they sentence rapists, armed robbers and burglars,
Landis noted.

Not all prosecutors oppose the changes.

"I don't think it's serving any useful purpose to fill our prisons with
people who are convicted of dealing one hundred dollars worth of crack,"
said Lake County Prosecutor Bob Wright. "I think we had the war on drugs
and we lost, and now we better plan a new strategy for solving this
problem."

Wright said the old penalties ended up sending small-time dealers,
people who were selling drugs to support their habits, to prison for a
long time.

"The people we see on a day-to-day basis for manufacturing meth or
selling crack, technically, they don't have two nickels to rub
together," Wright said. "They don't need to go to prison for 20 years.
All they need to do is stop using drugs."

Vanderburgh County Deputy Prosecutor Mike Perry said the changes are
good and bad. It will be harder to plea-bargain some cases, but he also
will be able to win longer sentences for methamphetamine dealers.

"It's frankly my opinion that the dealers need to be locked up and the
users need to be helped," said Perry, the director of the office's drug
law enforcement program.

Perry said he will have to see how the changes play out in the
courtroom. If it becomes a problem, Perry said, he probably will ask
lawmakers to try to make some changes.

Steve Johnson, executive director of the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys
Council, said prosecutors across the state were split on the issue.

"Judges can still hammer people, there's no question about it," Johnson
said. "They didn't loosen up any of the penalties."

As the state spends more and more on keeping people locked up, lawmakers

have frowned on the prospect of building more prisons in favor of
expanding cheaper alternatives, such as home detention and work release.

Johnson said that about 40 percent of Class A felons, the most serious
offenders, being held in Indiana prisons were convicted of a drug crime.

Prosecutors are going to have to revise their plea policies, Johnson
said. But that doesn't mean the big-time drug dealers will be handed a
get-out-of-jail-free card.

This new change does not signal a new, kinder, gentler approach to drug
dealing, Johnson said. In fact, lawmakers eliminated the mandatory
sentences in the same bill that increased the penalties for dealing
methamphetamine.

"It's not a reversal, but it's a second look," he said.