PATAKI LINKS DRUG REFORM TO PAROLE LIMITS

ALBANY -- Governor Pataki yesterday proposed a pair of modest measures
to soften the impact of the Rockefeller drug laws on some non-violent
offenders in exchange for ending parole for all first-time felons and
arming prosecutors with an array of new powers.

"We think it is a fair, balanced approach," the Governor said as he
outlined his criminal justice package at a capitol press conference.

But sentencing reform advocates complained his plan does too little to
redress "gross injustices" under the state's mandatory drug sentencing
structure. And in dismantling the final pieces of the discretionary
parole system, they warned that it will remove incentives for good
behavior by inmates and place added pressure on the state's
overcrowded prisons.

"This reminds me of the kind of trades the Yankees used to have with
the Boston Red Sox, getting Babe Ruth for nothing," said Robert Gangi,
executive director of the Correctional Association.

In addition to ending parole for all felons, the Governor's proposed
Sentencing Reform Act of 1999 would give district attorneys an arsenal
of new weapons for prosecuting drug dealers and money launderers,
including enhanced penalties for drug "king pins" convicted of
conspiracy, and creating a presumption, when someone fails to file a
cash transaction report, that the money involved came from a criminal
enterprise.

Some proposals would strengthen the hand of district attorneys far
beyond the drug field, allowing them for the first time to appeal
sentences they see as too lenient and bail decisions they view as too
low in any criminal case.

The bill would also impose tougher sentences on repeat felons with a
history of violent crime, increasing the current minimum prison term
for a non-violent offense by roughly one to two years when the
defendant has a prior conviction for a violent felony.

"Since the day I took office, I have believed ... that the primary and
most important function of government is to provide for the safety of
its people," the Governor said.

Assembly officials would not comment directly on the Governor's bill,
which they have not yet received. They left the door open to
negotiation, but also suggested they may insist on a trade of their
own: approval of Assembly gun control measures banning assault weapons
and requiring gun owners to use child-proof safety locks. Senate
Republicans have balked at both proposals.

"Our top criminal justice priority this session is enactment of a
school safety package that includes a ban on assault weapons and
trigger locks," said Patricia Lynch, spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker
Sheldon Silver. "When we receive Mr. Pataki's sentencing reform
legislation we will take a serious look at it, but we want the assault
weapon ban and trigger locks."

The Governor's bill would eliminate discretionary parole for about
13,000 defendants who are convicted each year of non-violent felonies,
requiring them to serve six-sevenths of their sentence before they
could be released, and then subjecting them to an 18-month to
three-year period of post release supervision with all of the
monitoring requirements and sanctions that are now imposed on parolees.

Although longer prison terms were a key feature of his prior bills to
eliminate parole for violent felons, Governor Pataki said the
determinate sentences he is now proposing for non-violent offenders
are designed to mirror the prison terms actually served under the
current indeterminate sentencing structure. The prison population
"would be essentially flat," he said, except for the enhanced
sentences for repeat offenders with predicate violent felonies.

The proposed determinate sentencing structure would set a minimum term
of one year and two months for first-time, non-violent offenders
convicted of class B through E felonies. The maximum terms would range
from three years and six months for class E offenses to 17 years of
class B felonies.

Sentence Review

The Governor's drug law reform measures are loosely based a plan
advanced in January by Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye, who proposed
allowing the Appellate Division to review class A-1 drug felony
sentences and to reduce the mandatory minimum term of 15-years-to-life
to five-years-to-life if it found "a miscarriage of justice." Her plan
was limited to cases on direct appeal -- about 45 cases per year.

The Governor's bill would allow the Appellate Division to reduce an
A-1 sentence no lower than 10-years-to-life, and it would be limited
to defendants convicted of possession -- not sale -- of a drug. But it
would also be retroactive, giving inmates who have exhausted their
direct appeal one year to apply for sentence review.

Criminal Justice Director Katherine N. Lapp said that of the 640
inmates now serving time for A-1 drug felonies, about 250 might be
eligible for sentence review.

For low-level drug offenders, the Governor adopted Judge Kaye's
proposal to relax the Second Felony Offender Law by allowing judges to
divert non-violent defendants to drug treatment programs, but only
with consent of the prosecutor. The measure essentially codifies the
DTAP programs that district attorneys in New York City and a few
upstate counties have established on their own.

Former State Senator John R. Dunne, who was a sponsor of the
sentencing laws when they were enacted in 1973 and now heads a group
of former political and judicial leaders who are lobbying for reform
of the laws, is still hoping for more significant changes.

"It's a modest beginning," he said of the Governor's bill. "It cuts
back even on some of the modest proposals by Judge Kaye, but it is a
start. I would say the issue is very much in play." Mr. Dunne said his
group will issue its own reform proposal within 10 days.

Mr. Gangi was more critical. "The nub of drug law reform is to return
sentencing discretion to the trial judge," he said. "There is no
element of [the Governor's] proposal that does that."

Laundering, King Pins

Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau appeared with the
Governor to support his plan to eliminate parole, but he spoke
primarily in favor of money laundering legislation. "We are losing the
fight against white-collar crime and the major drug traffickers," he
said, arguing that the presumption of illegality that would be
established for failure to file a cash transaction report would give
district attorneys "the ability to identify and prosecute people who
engage in money laundering."

The Governor's bill would give prosecutors a new post-conviction plea
bargaining tool, allowing them to seek a court reduction of a class
A-1 drug conviction to a class B non-violent felony for defendants who
cooperate. Ms. Lapp said the measure "is intended to get the ... drug
mules to identify who the king pins are."

Another provision targeting "king pins" would increase the penalty for
a drug dealer who conspires with three or more people to commit a
class A offense, currently a class B felony, to a class A-1 drug
offense. Another provision would increase the penalty for dealers who
use minors in their drug business from a class C felony to a B felony.

Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno vowed to pass the Governor's bill.
"Common sense tells me if a criminal is in jail, they cannot be out on
the street committing other crimes," he said.