PUNISHMENT AND TREATMENT

The State Needs To Draw A Sharper Distinction Between Prison Terms For
Pushers And Addicts

It's time for some further examination of the Pataki administration's
parole policies. Not the proposal to end the all but routine procedure of
releasing violent felons upon completion of two-thirds of their sentences,
but the way drug cases are handled. The administration now says it's
determined to put a stop to the practice of paroling and then deporting
illegal immigrants convicted of big-time drug offenses before they serve
even their minimum sentences.

It's about time.

The policy allowed some drug felons to avoid some serious jail time. Ziv
Oved, who originally was sentenced to six years to life for his role in a
$1 million-a-week drug racket, was deported to Israel after serving just
two and a half years. That amounted to less time than U.S. authorities
spent looking for him after he fled the country after a previous conviction
on smuggling charges. Another drug felon, Gloria Murrugo, was deported to
Colombia after serving less than a year of a three-years-to-life term for
landing at Kennedy Airport with 10 ounces of heroin in her possession.
Another Colombian national, Javier Rodriguez, was sentenced to eight years
to life in prison after he was arrested with more than 40 pounds of
cocaine. But he was paroled and deported after spending less than two years
in prison.

The parole-and-deportation policy was supposed to save the state lots of
money. It did, in fact. The state says the savings totaled $85 million. But
at what larger price? Of the 1,277 inmates who went free before they should
have been eligible for parole, 158 had been convicted of the most serious
drug felonies of all. Why wouldn't an effort to cut costs and ease
overcrowding in the state's prisons be instead directed at the many
low-level drug offenders serving equally long sentences because of the
Rockefeller era drug laws?

Since mandatory sentences for even small-time drug offenses took effect
some 25 years ago, the state has had to build cells for a total of 40,000
additional inmates, at a cost of $4 billion, according to the Correctional
Association of New York. Even now, the same group estimates that more than
20 percent of New York's 70,000 inmates are nonviolent drug offenders
locked up because of the excessive Rockefeller-era drug laws.

A proposal before the Legislature would restore some sanity to the state's
drug policies. Illegal immigrants guilty of selling more than two ounces,
or merely possessing more than four ounces, of hard drugs like heroin and
cocaine would not be eligible for release and deportation.

Prosecutors would have to approve the release and deportation of illegal
immigrants guilty of selling more than half an ounce or possessing more
than two ounces of cocaine or heroin. About 500 people convicted of such
charges got out of jail early.

Long before addicts are released from prison, their sentences should
emphasize treatment as much as anything else.

Chief Judge Judith Kaye, for instance, wants more courts devoted solely to
dealing with nonviolent addicts. She points to a 3-year-old program in
Rochester where only 5 percent of 200 people sentenced have been
re-arrested. The overall recidivism rate for drug offenders in New York is
70 percent.

More effective enforcement of drug laws comes, ultimately, to this: The
harshest sentences should be reserved for the hard-core pushers. Leniency
should be restricted to the least serious and most easily rehabilitated
offenders.