DRUGS IN PRISON NOW AN ISSUE

Gubernatorial Candidates Address How To Stem Flow Of Drugs To
Incarcerated Addicts

New York should do more to stop the flow of deadly drugs into state
prisons, said Democratic gubernatorial candidate Eliot L. Spitzer,
who outlined a four-point approach he says ultimately will reduce
crime on the streets.

The state prison system, Spitzer said, needs to beef up officer
training and use more drug-detection technology to identify inmates
smuggling drugs into its 69 prisons. Internal affairs - the main
investigatory arm inside the prison - should be strengthened and
vigorously prosecute anyone caught with drugs, he said.

More emphasis should be placed on treatment of drug-addicted inmates,
while in prison and after their release. And a post-incarceration
employment program is needed, he said.

"Drug use is an overwhelming problem among criminal offenders,"
Spitzer said. "We know that in-prison treatment followed up by
continued treatment in the community, and after-care upon release,
keeps people off drugs and reduces re-arrest.

"Addressing addiction in prison at re-entry is a critical
crime-fighting strategy, and one that I intend to employ," he said.

Spitzer was responding to "Jailhouse Highs," a four-part series
published in The Buffalo News that found heroin and other illegal
drugs so abundant in some New York State prisons that many inmates
leave just as addicted as when they first arrived, returning to the
streets to commit more crimes. Other prisoners, The News found,
fatally overdose behind bars - at twice the national average.

Responding to the series, Republican gubernatorial candidate John J.
Faso said he would like to look at other states cited in the News
series, particularly Pennsylvania, as doing a better job than New
York at keeping drugs out of prison. "Anything we can do to cut down
on the infiltration of drugs and other substances in our prisons is
warranted," Faso said.

But Spitzer took aim at the current Republican administration, saying
it missed an opportunity to improve prison safety in recent years.

"The prison population in New York State has been shrinking over the
past several years, providing an opportunity - one neglected by the
current administration - to do more with less and make our prisons
safer, more secure, and places where people can become more law
abiding, not less," Spitzer said in an e-mailed statement to The
News. "We need to strengthen procedures and training to capture
contraband brought in by visitors, use more technology like
magnetometers, improve internal affairs and oversight, and vigorously
prosecute those who bring drugs into our prisons."

The state Department of Correctional Services did not have any
immediate response to Spitzer's and Faso's comments.

But Republican State Sen. Dale M. Volker, chairman of the Senate
Criminal Justice committee, downplayed the accessibility of drugs
behind bars and said he and the head of the prison system were amused
by an ex-convict's published statement that drugs are as easy to get
in prisons as they are on the streets. Others interviewed and quoted
in the News series, including prosecutors and other law enforcement
officials, agreed with the former addict.

"I was talking to the acting [DOCs] commissioner [Lucien LeClaire],
and we were laughing at how the one guy was saying it's as easy to
get drugs in prison as it is on the corner," Volker said.

"That's why they are called connnn-victs," he added, referring to the
former inmate.

Volker also discounted research by The News showing other nearby
states conduct more random drug testing of inmates and have fewer
drug-related incidents in their prisons, including far fewer deaths,
than New York. Those other states, Volker said, weren't being as
honest as New York State about drugs in their prisons.

"Knowing what I know about systems, I strongly suspect they don't do
as much testing as they say they do. I don't mean to be cynical. Most
of the other states don't want to have bad reports."

When researching the prevalence of drugs in prisons, The Buffalo News
requested information on drug testing, drug deaths and drug-related
arrests from New York as well as the Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Those states readily released the information. New York State
initially refused to release much of the data, reversing its position
in some cases only after the News filed numerous Freedom of
Information requests.