FITZRANDOLPH ASKS: ARE CRACK DEALERS 'TRUELY DANGEROUS?'

St.Lawrence County Legislator Peter FitzRandolph is questioning whether
alleged crack and cocaine dealers arrested during the recent drug sweep are
"truely dangerous."

"It may be a violation of the law, but are they truly dangerous?" asked
FitzRandolph as legislators wrestled with the county's overcrowded jail and
increased costs in housing inmates at jails in Utica and Lewis counties.

After the recent series of drug busts in the county, jail officials were
forced to ship a large number of inmates out of the county because the jail
was already filled to capacity to make room for those arrested by the
county's drug task force.

Some of those inmates are still in jail, facing charges. "If the county took
the money that it's spending to board them out" at other jails and used it
to "loan it to the people who can't make bail, we might all be better off,"
FitzRandolph said.

"I'm not propsing it," He added. But FitzRandolph said the county's judges
ought to consider how dangerous people are before they jail them.