ADVOCATES PRAY FOR DRUG-LAW REFORM

Albany -- However, there is little hope of change
until Legislature returns in the fall.

Supporters of reforms to the Rockefeller Drug Laws turned to divine
intervention Tuesday as a last shot at seeing changes in the harsh
sentencing mandates before the Legislature leaves town for the summer.

About 100 relatives of prisoners serving time for
Rockefeller law violations bowed their heads in prayer at a noontime
vigil outside the Capitol, where Assembly Deputy Speaker Arthur O. Eve
called upon the highest of officials for help.

"We ask you now, help us, help us by helping those whom make these
decisions -- all 211 one of those men and women and our governor -- to
realize that the Rockefeller law is unjust, unfair, wrong,'' Eve prayed.
"It is not a law that is pleasing to your sight.''

But reformers will likely have to wait until fall to see any hope of
changes to the 26-year-old laws that require mandatory prison
sentences of at least 15 years to life for offenders caught with
relatively small amounts of narcotics.

The Legislature is expected to readdress Rockefeller reforms when it
returns to Albany in a few months to renew a health care bill that
expires at the end of the year, according to several Capitol insiders.

For more than a decade, advocates from both sides of the political
aisle have called for changes in the Rockefeller laws. This spring,
Gov. George Pataki, a Republican, offered to modestly scale back some
sentences in exchange for eliminating parole for all felons. The
Democratic-led Assembly, however, refuses to consider the parole
measure, effectively stalling any movement on the reforms.

Though inmates have nothing but time to wait out the reforms impasse,
the political stonewalling is taking its toll.

"There are times when he wants to give up,'' said

Angelique Tocco, whose husband, Thomas, is waiting out a
44-years-to-life sentence at Upstate Correctional Facility in Malone
for selling four ounces of cocaine to an undercover police officer in
1993. "He says, 'Forget about me. Go on with your life.' But we can't
do that. ... He made a mistake. Why can't he be given a second chance?''