REFORM ROCKEFELLER DRUG LAWS

Finally, a prominent state official has come out and said what most New York
politicians apparently think but are afraid to say: The 1973 Rockefeller
drug laws are bad policy and need to be changed. It helps further that the
official has the stature of Chief Judge Judith Kaye.

New York's prison population exploded, from about 12,000 to nearly 70,000,
during the Cuomo years. Much of that was due to the big increase in violent
crime in the 1970s and '80s, which was often related in some way to drugs.
It was also due to the mandatory, longer sentences that were a response to
that increase. Since then the level of violent crime, especially murder, has
dropped significantly in most of the state, especially in New York City -
and although analyzing crime trends is always tricky, the number of violent
criminals behind bars likely has something to do with that drop.

However, thanks to the Rockefeller drug laws, there are also thousands of
people behind bars who are not violent and don't need to be there, or at
least for so long. Under the most stringent of the laws, a person can be
sentenced to a minimum of 15 years to life for sale of more than two ounces
of a narcotic or possession of more than four ounces. Kaye wants the
Appellate Division to review those cases and reduce the minimum to five
years for some nonviolent offenders, to prevent a "miscarriage of justice."

It should be pointed out, though, that not all nonviolent felonies are what
they appear; some are pleaded down from violent felonies. In fact, this is
the main argument used by defenders of the Rockefeller drug laws: that most
of those imprisoned as a result of these statutes are in fact violent
criminals.

But according to new statistics from the Department of Criminal Justice
Services and the Department of Correctional Services,80 percent of the
people sentenced for drug offenses in 1997 had never been convicted of a
violent felony, and 47 percent had never even been arrested for one. The
statistics also show that many of those sentenced to prison for drug crimes
were first-time offenders. Half had never been convicted of a drug felony,
and one-third had never been arrested for one.

The truth is, the majority of drug offenders are addicts selling small
quantities to support their habit, or "mules" carrying narcotics for someone
else. And as former Sen. John Dunne, who was one of the sponsors of the
Rockefeller drug laws and now favors their repeal, says, "for every dealer
who is swept off the street, there are three or four volunteers waiting to
take their place."

The dealers are usually second offenders, and usually get 4BD-to-9 years.
Kaye's proposal to give trial-court judges more discretion in sentencing,
including diversion of appropriate candidates to drug treatment, seems a
better way of handling them.

Gov. George Pataki, who himself has expressed an interest in easing the
Rockefeller drug laws in the past, sounded receptive to the Kaye initiative,
calling it a "thoughtful, intelligent proposal" that deserves further
review. He should do more than review it, he should endorse it. If he did,
he'd probably find that most lawmakers and most New Yorkers are now prepared
to support him.