FORMER INMATES BLAST NY DRUG LAWS

NEW YORK (AP) -- Lisa Oberg couldn't stop embracing her mother -- hugging
her, kissing her, grabbing her hand. And for the first time in her 11-year
life, she didn't have to.

Gone were the days when Arlene Oberg would be escorted back to her cell at
the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, where she had been serving a
15-year-to-life prison sentence for a 1988 cocaine conviction.

On Wednesday, Ms. Oberg and two other women were freed by a parole board
after winning clemency from Gov. George Pataki last month.

``I felt so happy. She looked so pretty,'' said Lisa, who was born only
months after her mother was arrested and has been raised by her
grandmother. ``This means my life could start to be normal, because I've
never had a normal life.''

Ms. Oberg, Elaine Bartlett and Jan Warren were all sent to jail under the
state's Rockefeller drug law, which requires sentences of at least 15 years
for narcotics possession.

Opponents of the law, named for former Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, say it's
the nation's harshest penalty for drug use or possession. They have called
repeatedly for lawmakers to reconsider it.

``It's the most unjust law enacted in the Legislature in my time,'' said
Jerome W. Marks, a retired Supreme Court judge. He said the law excessively
punishes those involved in the lower levels of the drug trade, rather than
those who direct it.

Advocates for easing the penalties include the state's chief judge; Roman
Catholic Cardinal John O'Connor and the state's Catholic bishops; and a
coalition which includes some of the same state legislators who voted in
1973 to institute the statutes.

Even Laurence Rockefeller has come out in favor of reform, saying his
brother would have recognized the inequities and failures of the law had he
lived long enough.

The law has significantly contributed to the surge in New York's prison
population. In 1973, there were 14,700 inmates in 18 state prisons; Last
year, there were more than 70,000 inmates in 70 prisons. About one-third
were jailed on drug crimes.

Ms. Bartlett, was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison after being
arrested as a 26-year-old for bringing four ounces of cocaine to Albany.

The 42-year-old mother of four said she had never even gotten a parking
ticket before, but her good record had no impact on her sentence.

``The Rockefeller drug laws are ridiculous,'' she said. ``People are
rotting away in jail for nothing.''

Ms. Oberg, 33, arrested in 1988 after assisting in four cocaine sales, said
the law doesn't work.

``You have too many people who have minimal roles, and the people who are
making the profit and stand to make the most gain are out there, business
as usual,'' she said.