Source: Times Union (NY)
Copyright: 1999, Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation
Contact: tuletters@timesunion.com
Address: Box 15000, Albany, NY 12212
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Author: Lara Jakes, Capitol Bureau

STAUNCHEST SUPPORTER WAS ONCE A CRITIC

Albany-- Sen. Dale Volker says the drug trade is in decline, and tough
sentencing from the drug laws has had a positive impact

There was a time when even Sen. Dale Volker thought the Rockefeller
Drug Laws were too harsh.

It was 1973, and Volker was a freshman Republican assemblyman from
Erie County. As a former police officer, Volker was proud of his
law-and-order credentials and believed the state should be tough on
crime.

But then-Gov. Nelson Rockefeller's original blueprints for the drug
laws called for drastic measures to cut New York's narcotics trade
using bounty hunters and even the death penalty.

And even Volker, now the Rockefeller Drug Laws' staunchest supporter,
couldn't back that.

"You think they're tough now?'' Volker said in a recent interview.
"Lookit, I opposed the initial Rockefeller Drug Laws after a huge
fight with the governor. Nelson was a tough guy, and he had much
tougher initiatives in mind.''

By the time the laws were in place, however, Volker was on board and
solidly behind Rockefeller's plan. Volker has clung to that position
for 26 years, even as his conservative Republican colleagues have
begun to demand reform.

Volker acknowledges that the laws have not achieved their goal of
eliminating the drug trade. But the tough sentencing statutes, he
insists, continue to have a positive impact on society.

"The drug trade is in decline,'' he said. "The level of violence in
this state could not be dropping the way that it is unless the drug
culture were not fading. Does that mean we've won? Of course not. Does
it mean we're winning? Yeah, I think we are winning.''

Minor tinkering with the Rockefeller Drug Laws is acceptable to
Volker; in fact, the senator is sponsor of a bill that would ease
penalties for drug carriers. But complete overhaul? Out of the question.

"It's always popular to say, 'Oh, these poor people,' '' Volker said,
referring to some of the cases of prisoners serving lengthy sentences.
"Well, some of these 'poor people' are major drug dealers and major
couriers and have participated in deteriorating society.''

In fact, only about 10 percent of the defendants without a prior
felony record actually end up doing state prison time, according to a
new report issued last week by Katherine N. Lapp, the state's director
of criminal justice.

"We have got to look at this, it seems to me, from the standpoint of
making sure that we don't go back to the bad old days, when violence
was more the rule than not,'' Volker said. "And we need to make sure
we don't start a new surge of drug problems. We've already got enough
problems, and we still have a ways to go.''