PLAN FOR NONVIOLENT ADDICTS COMING

NEW YORK (AP) - A reform package introduced by the state's top court
officials aims to reduce drug addiction and drug-related crimes, saving
taxpayers hundred of millions of dollars.

State courts will start using their ``coercive'' powers immediately to get
nonviolent drug offenders into treatment programs, said Chief Judge Judith
Kaye, adding that 75 percent of people arrested test positive for drugs.

While accepting treatment is ultimately voluntary, the courts would offer it
to every nonviolent drug offender identified, said Jonathan Lippman, the
state's chief administrative judge.

The reform package was announced Thursday.

Defendants who opt for treatment would plead guilty and be sentenced for
their crimes, then have their sentences deferred pending successful
completion of a treatment program. They would then be eligible for a lighter
sentence on the original offense.

``For dropouts and failures, there will be immediate incarceration,''
Lippman said.

The decision comes in response to a 400 percent increase in drug cases over
the past 20 years, and is among the recommendations by the state Commission
on Drugs and the Courts. Kaye created the 27-member panel last October.

``Drug addicts clog the courts' dockets,'' the 126-page report said, ``and
they are often recidivists. An addict who ends up criminally charged is
likely to be responsible for multiple drug and drug-related crimes.''

The report shows 12 percent of offenders who graduate from drug treatment
programs commit more crimes, compared to 35 percent of offenders who test
positive for drugs and simply go to jail or are paroled without being
treated for substance abuse.

Lippman said the initiative, believed to be the first such statewide program
in the country, is expected eventually to cut the recidivism rate by
two-thirds and save the state some $500 million a year.