N.Y. LOCKED UP 70,000 IN '98

Crime fell as inmate count grew: Pataki plans more parole limits

ALBANY - The number of inmates in New York's state prisons climbed above
70,000 last year, reaching a historic high in spite of plunging crime
rates, according to statistics from the Department of Correctional Services.

The two trends are not as contradictory as they might seem, according to
state officials.

These officials said prison growth is a result of longer sentences and
fewer opportunities for parole, policies promoted by Gov. George Pataki as
a way of fighting crime.

"The violent criminals are off the street," said Scott Steinhardt, a
spokesman for the Division of Criminal Justice Services. "They're in prison
where they belong, and therefore we're seeing a reduction in crimes
committed. It's a simple, straightforward formula."

Pataki is expected to stick to that formula in his State of the State
speech today: According to The Associated Press, Pataki will propose
extending "Jenna's Law," which requires violent felons to serve at least
six-sevenths of their sentence, to cov-er non-violent felons as well. But
critics of the administrationsay the continued growth of the inmate
population is a sign that the Pataki-era crackdown has gone too far. They
argue that crime has abated for other reasons - such as an improving
economy, an aging population and a decline in the use of crack cocaine -
and that the state should build on that success by rehabilitating criminals
rather than simply keeping them behind bars.

"We overuse incarceration," said Robert Gangi of the Correctional
Association. "We have too many people locked up for too long a time."

Gangi said New York should divert some of the $1.7 billion it spends on
operating prisons to pay for things that could help prevent crime, such as
education and treatment for drug addiction.

"We're squandering money" on prisons, Gangi said. "Drug treatment is not
only less expensive and more humane, it's actually more effective in
reducing drug-related crime than long sentences."

As of Tuesday, the prison population was 70,291, DOCS spokesman Michael
Houston said. That represents an increase of about 1,200, or 1.7 percent,
from this time last year, according to DOCS figures.

The increase more than makes up for the decline of 600 inmates recorded in
1997, which was the first time the population had not gone up in 25 years.
Overall, the prison population has more than quintupled since 1972, a
period when the state's population declined slightly.

Crime rates rose dramatically during most of those years, but have been
falling equally dramatically since 1990. Between 1994 and 1997, the number
of major crimes reported to police in New York dropped 23 percent,
according to figures from the Division of Criminal Justice Services.
Violent crime was down 29 percent in that period, and the number of murders
dropped 45 percent, from 1,980 to 1,087.

David Duffee, a professor of criminal justice at the University at Albany,
said crime rates and incarceration rates have fluctuated pretty much
independently of each other throughout world history, indicating that one
has little effect on the other.

Duffee noted that the prison population soared after New York adopted its
Rockefeller-era drug laws, with their famously harsh penalties for dealing
in narcotics, but that drug-related crime exploded at the same time.

He said the current growth in the prison population is probably the result
of changing policies on parole. Even before the adoption of Jenna's Law -
named after an Albany nursing student who was murdered by an ex-convict in
1997 - parole officials probably used their discretion to keep criminals in
prison longer, Duffee said.

"They can tighten up on parole any time," he said. "They don't need a law
to do that. . . .

"You're seeing the corrections agencies becoming more conservative," he
said. "They're worried about public reaction to misbehavior by paroled
offenders on the street."

Statistics from the state Parole Division support this theory.

According to Thomas Grant, a spokesman for the division, the state's Parole
Board granted early release to 53 percent of the inmates who applied for
parole in fiscal year 1997-98, down from 64 percent in 1991-92, when Mario
Cuomo was governor.

Grant said the change was most dramatic for inmates convicted of violent
crimes, such as murder, assault and rape. Parole for these felons was
approved at a rate of just 33 percent in 1997-98, down from more than 53
percent in 1991-92.

"The more violent the offense, the more the Parole Board looks at the
release with a jaundiced eye," Grant said.