AX ROCKY'S DRUG LAWS & SLASH JAIL TERMS: GOV

ALBANY - New York would scrap its notoriously harsh Rockefeller drug laws
under a plan Gov. Pataki unveiled yesterday to drastically chop sentences
for many offenses.

This is Pataki's second effort to change the 1970s laws, and chances for
legislative approval appeared hugely improved because the governor dumped
his earlier link to ending parole for all convicted felons.

"This is a tough and smart approach to the treatment of crime," Pataki said
in describing a 10-part package that also includes new measures aimed at
nailing drug kingpins and fighting those who deal drugs over the Internet
or use children to carry out narcotics transactions.

"It seems like he is coming around to our way of thinking, and his
proposals are intriguing," said Assemblyman Keith Wright (D-Harlem), the
chairman of the Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators and the
assistant whip in the lower house.

Mayor Giuliani suggested the Pataki plan would have little impact,
contending prosecutors already do an end-run around the Rockefeller laws by
way of plea bargains. "I really would not urge some major change, maybe a
few exceptions, a little more discretion [for judges] built in," he said.

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown argued that most drug offenders are
in prison because they belong there.

"They repeatedly sold drugs to make money or possessed large quantities of
drugs intended for distribution to local communities," he said.

Pataki's legislation would:

Slice the most severe penalty for nonviolent drug crimes -- 15 years to
life -- to 8 1/3 years to life.

Provide some 500 convicts currently behind bars a chance to apply for a
sentencing reduction.

Allow judges to send some nonviolent offenders to treatment centers and
avoid incarceration altogether.

Give trial judges more discretion in meting out mandatory prison terms for
some repeat drug offenders.

Target the masterminds of drug rings by subjecting them to sentences of 15
years to life.

Boost the penalty for drug offenders possessing guns from one to three
years in prison to at least five years behind bars.

"This is an important proposal, and we're going to do everything we can to
get it passed," the governor said.

The Rockefeller drug laws -- containing some of the harshest penalties in
the nation -- were enacted 28 years ago.

Katherine Lapp, Pataki's criminal justice director, said the proposal would
divert some 5,500 offenders from prison over the next four years, and would
save taxpayers millions of dollars, because it costs $30,000 a year to keep
an inmate behind bars.

With Frank Lombardi