DAs WARY OF DRUG LAW REFORM

Albany -- Prosecutors say lower crime rate would suffer if sentences were
to be reduced

The drop in New York's violent crime rate could be reversed if prosecutors
lose their ability to lock up drug offenders under the Rockefeller Drug
Laws' long mandatory sentences, members of the state District Attorneys
Association said Tuesday.

Linking "vigorous enforcement of the drug laws'' to the drop in violent
crime, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick told the
Senate Codes Committee, "it would be a serious mistake to take away from
law enforcement the tools to make the streets safer.''

The association opposes reducing the maximum sentences required for those
convicted of the most serious, or Class A, offenses for possession or sale
of several ounces of drugs. However, it supports reducing sentences on
appeal when offenders can prove they are not violent or drug kingpins.

Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney, the association's
president, challenged drug law reform advocates' claim that New York's
prisons are filled with nonviolent drug addicts. Eighty-seven percent of
drug offenders in prison are there for selling drugs or possession with the
intent to sell, Carney said, and 77 percent are second-time felony offenders.

Sen. Eric Schneiderman, D-Manhattan, was unconvinced by the district
attorneys' claims. He pointed out that crime has fallen nationwide, even in
states without mandatory drug sentencing laws.

"I do not see that there is much more than superstition at work here,'' he
said.

Drug law reform advocates charged that prosecutors are really concerned
about losing any power to judges.

"Nothing about Rockefeller reform would change the ability of police to
arrest, nothing prevents prosecutors from sending drug lords to prison,''
said Jonathan Gradess, executive director of the New York State Defenders
Association.

Gov. George Pataki proposes to return some sentencing discretion to judges,
allowing them to send C, D and E-Class low-level, nonviolent offenders to
drug treatment instead of prison. The Democratic Assembly majority wants to
include Class B offenders.

All sides seem to agree that more low-level drug offenders should get
treatment rather than prison. But they differ widely on who would decide
which offenders are eligible for treatment and how to pay for it.

Carney said district attorneys support expanding drug treatment programs in
lieu of prison, but only if they have a say in who goes where and there is
a threat of prison if offenders don't finish treatment. They have endorsed
a plan by Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, to add $20
million to the 2001-02 budget to expand prison and community treatment
programs.

Assembly Democrats propose spending more than $66 million on new and
existing community treatment programs. Pataki's budget includes no
additional treatment funds.

Treatment providers told the Assembly Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Committee
Tuesday that their programs are already stretched to the limit.