STUDY NOTES SHORTER SENTENCES AS DRUG TRAFFICKING CASES SOAR

WASHINGTON -- Convicted federal drug offenders are spending less time behind
bars, but more of them are being prosecuted, a study of judicial records
shows.

The shorter sentences, during a 1992-1998 period that began in the final
year of the Bush administration and includes most of the Clinton
administration, suggest that federal judges and prosecutors are finding ways
around tough mandatory minimum sentences mandated by Congress to crack down
on drug traffickers.

To some experts, the findings also suggest that federal agents are
increasingly nailing "small fry" drug offenders rather than the kingpins
whom federal agencies are suited to pursue.

"There has been an undue emphasis on the lesser figures in drug trafficking
because they're easier to convict," said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., a member
of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The study was done by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a
government performance analysis center in Washington that is associated with
Syracuse University.

Researchers found that the average federal drug sentence dropped about 20
percent between 1992 and 1998.

The Justice Department did not dispute the figures. "We have been aware of
this trend for several years," spokesman John Russell said.

For the Drug Enforcement Administration, which brings most drug cases to
federal courts, the average sentence dropped to 75 months in 1998 from 94
months in 1992.

Results for individual judicial districts varied dramatically.
DEA-instigated federal drug sentences in the New York City area, for
example, fell to fewer than 70 months in 1998 from more than 140 months in
1992. Meanwhile, in western North Carolina the average soared from 36 months
to 103 months.

Nationally, the number of federal drug prosecutions rose to an all-time high
of 21,571 in 1998, up 16 percent from 1992.

DEA and the Customs Service, the second-largest narcotics enforcement
agency, remain focused on fighting the marijuana trade. In 1998, convictions
involving marijuana totaled 34 percent of all their drug cases, compared to
28 percent for powder cocaine and 17 percent for crack cocaine.

The marijuana quantities are large, however. To rate a 5-year mandatory
federal drug sentence, a trafficker would have to deal more than 100 kilos
of marijuana, compared to 500 grams of cocaine.

Bob Weiner, spokesman for U.S. drug-policy coordinator Barry R. McCaffrey,
called the new report "a mixed batch of statistics." He said it was obvious
that most arrests involve smaller cases. "There's only one person at the top
of the pyramid and everybody else is down from that," he said.

"Big cases, big problems. Little cases, little problems," said Eric E.
Sterling, president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, a Washington
nonpartisan think tank. "The U.S. Justice Department is focusing too much of
its effort on low-level cases."

But analysts also say that federal judges, who have long complained that
mandatory sentencing is too rigid and severe, have found a way around those
mandates with the cooperation of Congress and the Clinton administration.

One of those bypasses is a "safety valve" provision adopted by Congress in
1994, giving judges more flexibility in sentencing low-level cases. Since
then, drug defendants who cooperate with prosecutors have been rewarded with
shorter sentences, Russell said.

Federal agencies should do more to go after kingpins because local police do
not have the resources, said Mark Mauer, assistant director for The
Sentencing Project, a Washington-based policy research and advocacy group.

"The justification for federal prosecution is that they have the resources
to handle complex, high-level cases," he said. The report "suggests that
U.S. prosecutors are not targeting the most serious cases."

The matter is with the courts and out of the Customs Service's hands, said
spokesman Dean Boyd.

"Customs has absolutely no control over sentencing," he said. "We don't do
sentencing."

Drug Cases

Average change in drug sentences between 1992 and 1998 in DEA cases brought
nationwide and in the four federal judicial districts of Texas:

CHANGE IN SENTENCES

U.S.-20%

East Texas-39%

North Texas3%

South Texas-30%

West Texas-37%

Source: Transactional Records