PATAKI REPORT SAYS MOST DRUG OFFENDERS HAVE BROAD CRIME HISTORIES

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Gov. George Pataki will back up his call for a
modest easing of New York's Rockefeller drug laws with the release of
a study which argues that the statutes are not catching mainly
nonviolent people whose sole offense is addiction to narcotics.

Relatively few people, in fact, are sent to state prison in New York
upon their first felony drug conviction and inmates incarcerated only
for drug offenses usually have extensive arrest records and histories
of violating court directives, according to a report to be released
today by Katherine Lapp, Pataki's criminal justice services
coordinator.

The study of the disposition of 1996 drug cases in New York debunks
arguments used by opponents of the state's quarter-century-old drug
laws, she said.

It is designed to give statistical support for the extremely limited
changes Pataki is expected to propose today in the Rockefeller drug
laws. Pataki wants appeals' court review of those getting the harshest
penalties for drug possession in New York, 15 years to life.

The governor's plan would allow that sentence to be reduced to 10
years to life on a case-by-case basis.

That proposal is being called a disappointment by Rockefeller drug law
opponents, especially coming from a governor who called for a review
of the drug laws back in 1995.

Lapp looked at two categories of felony drug arrests in 1996: people
who had no prior felony arrests in New York state and those whose
felony arrest histories were limited to drug charges.

Of the 15,590 cases involving people arrested for first time on
felonies, Lapp said 10,853 or 70 percent were convicted of the drug
charges. But she said that only one-tenth or 1,526 people were
sentenced to state prison. The vast majority were given probation,
sent into alternatives to incarceration programs, treatment programs
or given time in local jails, Lapp concluded.

"These data suggest that the criminal justice system is very selective
in its use of prison for first-time offenders," she said.

The other phase of the study, of those defendants arrested in 1996 who
had drug-only arrests in their backgrounds, indicated that most had
had extensive brushes with the law. They averaged 2.5 prior felony
drug arrests and 2.2 prior misdemeanor arrests, Lapp found.
Seventy-two percent served prior probation or prison terms but
continued to be involved with illegal drugs.

The case histories of 20 defendants were included in each phase of
Lapp's study. She said the offenders were drawn at random and
illustrate case-by-case her conclusions, namely, that people are not
often imprisoned as a result of their first felony drug arrest and
that drug-only offenders often had other criminal activities on their
records, often while on pretrial release or probation.

"Contrary to images portrayed by Rockefeller Drug Law reform
advocates, the drug offenders serving time in our state prison system
today are committed to prison because of their repeated criminal
behavior, leaving judges with few options short of prison," Lapp concluded.

The Human Rights Watch, which tracks abusive government policies
across the globe, has labeled the Rockefeller drug laws among the
harshest anywhere. It said nearly 80 percent of those convicted under
the statutes have no prior conviction for a violent felony offense.

Teri Derikart, state director of Families Against Mandatory Minimums,
said the Lapp report does not change her group's contention that
one-third of drug offenders in prison "were either entrapped or
convicted with the with the assistance of an informant." Those people
should be diverted into drug treatment programs, Derikart argued.

"They are not the drug kingpins," she said Sunday.

Derikart also contended that Pataki does not understand the nature of
drug addiction. Many of the offenses allegedly committed by the
"drug-only" offenders were for burglary or drug-selling - crimes
motivated by the criminals need to get more drugs, she maintained.

"All you can think of is your next time of using (drugs)," she said.
"And it causes people do crazy things."

The centerpiece of Pataki's sentencing reform proposal is a call for
all felony offenders to serve at least six-seventh of their minimum
sentences until they are eligible for parole. In 1998, Pataki forced
such a sentencing provision through the state Assembly for all people
convicted of violent felonies.