CHANGE NEW YORK'S DRUG LAWS

As long as people use drugs, you're never going to run out of drug dealers.
But you are going to run out of prison space if you have mandatory, lengthy
sentences for drug offenders. With the Rockefeller drug laws enacted in
1973, that's exactly what New York state has got; and as a variety of
speakers at a Siena College forum said last weekend, it's time they were
changed.

Among the speakers at the forum was John Dunne, a former state senator who
supported the tough drug laws when Gov. Nelson Rockefeller proposed them.
After observing these laws for more than a quarter century, Dunne has come
to the same conclusion that others, including the country's drug czar,
Barry McCaffrey, and the state's chief judge, Judith Kaye, have come to:
They've failed to achieve their goals. They have handcuffed judges,
required more and more prison cells (there were 12,500 inmates in 1973 and
more than 70,000 today), and in many cases denied addicts the treatment
they need.

It is true that the drug laws were in part a response to the big increase
in violent crime in the 1970s and '80s, which was often related in some way
to drugs. It's also true that the level of violent crime in the state has
dropped significantly since then (although analyzing crime trends is always
tricky, the number of violent criminals behind bars likely has something to
do with that drop.)

However, thanks to the Rockefeller drug laws, there are thousands of people
behind bars who are not violent and don't need to be there, or at least for
so long.

According to statistics released last year by the Department of Criminal
Justice Services and the Department of Corrections, 80 percent of the
people sent to prison for drug offenses in 1997 had never been convicted of
a violent felony, and 47 percent had never been arrested for one. Half had
never been convicted of a drug felony, and one-third had never previously
been arrested for one.

What's needed is for the Legislature to generally reduce the length of the
sentences for drug offenses - certainly the most Draconian sentences. It
should also give judges discretion in sentencing, so they can do things
such as divert offenders with the best likelihood of salvaging their lives
into drug programs, and waive their prison sentence if they successfully
complete treatment. Judge Kaye has proposed this, and it's an excellent idea.