The Prison Explosion, Part 1c

PARTY LABELS AFFECT LEADERS' VIEWS ON DRUG LAW REFORMS

Two key legislators on both sides of the political fence agree the time may
be ripe for amending New York's drug laws. But that's all they agree on.

On one side, Sen. Michael Nozzolio, chair of the Senate Corrections
Committee, wants to increase drug treatment programs and allow appellate
courts to roll back only the stiffest sentences. He calls assertions that
drug laws have filled prisons with low-level drug offenders ''overinflated
hype.''

On the other side, Assemblyman Jeffrion L. Aubry, chairman of the Assembly
Corrections Committee, wants to repeal mandatory prison sentences for drug
offenders in lieu of letting judges decide. The laws, he said, ''induce
plea bargains whether you are guilty or not.''

One sees the laws as beneficial, the other destructive.

''We're starting to get a professional prisoner community,'' said Aubry, a
Queens Democrat, referring to the large, drug-law driven increase in the
inmate population. ''That's how we filled up the prisons. It hasn't stopped
the drug trade.''

''There are no more than 500 felons under Rockefeller drug laws'' serving
the longest sentences of 15 years to life, said Nozzolio, a Seneca County
Republican. ''These laws certainly should be reviewed. I support
modification of them, but frankly we need to continue the criminalization
of drugs.''

Reform advocates contend the laws have also imprisoned thousands of others
for shorter periods; about 22,000 people are currently serving prison terms
for drug offenses.

At the heart of the debate over drug laws is a clear philosophical split on
issues of crime and punishment. Indeed, the two legislators split on other
trends in the prison system, including parole and opportunities for
rehabilitation while behind bars.

In many ways, the views are shaped as much by the legislators' party
affiliations as by an upstate/downstate dynamic: Nozzolio represents a
predominantly white rural district in the Finger Lakes region; Aubry's is
urban, with a far greater minority population and far more likely to suffer
the scourge -- not of drugs, Aubry says, but of drug laws.

''I have seen the impact of New York City enforcement,'' said Aubry. ''You
get less stable families, you get less voters. You get less male images (in
the community). It's a cavalcade of social ills that run out of this process.''

Nozzolio, meantime, maintained the state's incarceration buildup has ''a
direct relationship to reducing the crime rate,'' in particular when
violent felons are held in prison longer.