4 FIRST-TIME DRUG OFFENDERS GRANTED CLEMENCY BY NEW YORK GOVERNOR

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Gov. George Pataki granted clemency Thursday to four state
prison inmates, and, following his pattern of years past, he chose
first-time offenders who were serving long sentences under New York's harsh
drug laws.

The action brings to 17 the number of people the governor has given clemency
to in his five years in office. Fifteen of these were convicted under the
so-called Rockefeller drug laws, enacted in 1973 under Gov. Nelson
Rockefeller. The laws, which are the primary cause of a sixfold growth in
the state's prison population, require long sentences for drug offenses. For
example, anyone convicted of selling as little as two ounces of cocaine, or
possessing as little as four ounces, must be sentenced to a minimum of 15
years to life in prison, which means that the inmate becomes eligible for
parole after 15 years.

The four people granted clemency Thursday had each been convicted of
first-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, and sentenced to 15
years to life or 20 years to life. They have actually served from 11 to 18
years.

"While we will not tolerate illegal drug dealing in New York," the governor
said in a statement, "we must recognize those individuals who have paid
their debt to society and have taken substantial steps to rehabilitate
themselves while incarcerated."

Three of the inmates, Elaine Bartlett, 42; Jan Warren, 47; and Arlene Oberg,
33, were among a group of four whose cause had been taken up by Charles
Grodin, the actor and talk show host, and by Joseph Bruno, the Republican
majority leader of the State Senate. The fourth inmate was Robert Bavisotto,
50.

Over five years, 10 of the 17 people Pataki has given clemency to have been
women, though women account for just 5 percent of the prison population.

After his election in 1994, Pataki said he considered the Rockefeller drug
laws too severe. But he made no move to change them until this year, and
even that proposal, which went nowhere in the Legislature, did not reduce
the mandatory minimum sentences. Rather, it would have allowed defendants in
a very limited number of cases to appeal their sentences, and in return, the
governor demanded an end to discretionary parole, something Democrats in the
Legislature have rejected. Advocates of change in the drug laws complained
that Pataki has ignored the underlying issue.

"It's time for the governor to move on reforming the drug laws that caused
these egregious sentences in the first place," said Robert Gangi, executive
director of the Correctional Association of New York, a prison policy group.
"There are hundreds of people in the state prisons in the same position as
these four individuals."

The state's prisons now hold 72,000 inmates, up from 12,000 in 1973. As
recently as 1980, 11 percent of the people sent to state prisons were drug
offenders; now, they are just under half the total.

Pataki has used his clemency power at about the same rate as his
predecessor, Mario Cuomo, a Democrat who granted it to 35 people in 12
years.

In October, the governor gave clemency to Patricia Feerick, a former New
York City police lieutenant who had been convicted of conducting an illegal
raid on two East Harlem apartments and terrorizing their occupants. Staten
Island Borough President Guy Molinari, a Republican, had campaigned for her
release.

A grant of clemency does not automatically mean release from prison, though
historically it has worked that way in nearly all cases. It means that the
inmate immediately becomes eligible for parole, and it is up to the parole
board whether to order release.