PATAKI WOULD EASE DRUG LAWS, BUT TIES PLAN TO ENDING PAROLE

ALBANY -- Gov. George E. Pataki proposed a plan Monday to loosen the
stringent Rockefeller-era drug laws, which have caused New York's prison
population to swell over the last two decades with drug offenders who have
been subjected to tough mandatory sentences.

But Pataki's aides indicated that he would agree to ease the drug laws,
including giving people convicted of drug crimes the right to appeal harsh
sentences, only if his Democratic rivals in the Legislature approved one of
his main criminal-justice initiatives of the year, the elimination of
parole. Democratic leaders in the Assembly said Monday that they would be
open to considering both proposals.

The laws, adopted in 1973 under Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, call for some
of the toughest prison sentences in the nation for drug offenses. They have
remained in place since then, despite mounting criticism and repeated
attempts, mostly by Democrats, to overhaul them. The critics have charged,
among other things, that the laws have clogged the state's prisons with
drug offenders, many of them nonviolent addicts, who might be better served
in drug treatment programs or other cheaper alternatives to prison.

Last year alone, 9,063 people were sent to state prison for drug offenses.
That brought the total number of people in state prison for nonviolent drug
crimes to about 22,000, or roughly a third of the total state prison
population of 70,000, according to the Correctional Association of New
York, a prison watchdog group.

Pataki himself expressed grave reservations about the laws when he took
office, but up to now had done little to advance any revisions among his
Republican colleagues in the State Senate, the drug laws' main supporters.

Pataki's main ally in Albany, Senator Joseph L. Bruno, the Republican
majority leader, warmly praised the new plan and said he would pass it.

Under the drug laws, judges must abide by rigid sentencing guidelines that
require long prison terms for drug offenses, even for relatively minor ones
like possessing a small quantity of narcotics. For example, someone
convicted of selling more than two ounces of cocaine, heroin or other
controlled substances -- or possessing more than four ounces -- must be
sentenced to a minimum of 15 years in prison.

The Governor's proposal would allow appellate judges to reduce the minimum
sentence to as little as 10 years, although only in cases involving
first-time felons convicted of relatively minor crimes, like simple
possession of a small quantity of drugs above the four-ounce minimum. The
plan would also apply to people already convicted. His aides estimated that
about 250 drug offenders currently behind bars would be eligible to appeal
their sentences under the plan.

The plan Pataki outlined today prompted frustration and disappointment
among longtime critics of the drug laws, who had been counting on him to
push for a more comprehensive change. They said that his plan fell far
short of one of their main goals: the abandonment of the current sentencing
structure for drug crimes, along with the restoration of discretion to
judges in determining the punishment for drug offenders.

But the Governor's plan drew praise from prosecutors across the state, who
have argued against any wholesale revision in the laws, saying that they
provide a valuable tool for combating crime and extracting plea bargains
from defendants.

They also dismissed the notion that the laws had led to unduly harsh
sentences for large numbers, noting that the state has already put into
effect a variety of early-release programs as an alternative to prison for
low-level offenders.

Pataki said he intended to link his proposal granting defendants the right
to appeal their sentences to one that would give prosecutors a similar
chance to appeal drug-offense sentences they consider too light or a bail
that they consider too low.

The Governor's aides have repeatedly said that he will agree to revise the
drug laws only in exchange for Democratic support for his proposal to
eliminate parole. That proposal would the end the state's practice of
sentencing criminals to a range of time in prison, and replace it with one
of specific sentences.

Patricia Lynch, a spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, said
this afternoon that the Democratic leadership would take "a serious look"
at the Governor's proposals on drug laws and parole.