DEAL REACHED ON AMOUNTS TO TRIGGER MANDATORY SENTENCES

In an effort to remedy the racial disparity in mandatory drug sentences,
the state Senate Wednesday passed an amended bill to equalize the amounts
of crack and powder cocaine that would trigger those sentences.

Current law provides a mandatory sentence of five years in prison for
possession of one ounce of powder cocaine or a half-gram of crack.
Legislators have said that because inner-city blacks and Hispanics are more
likely to use crack cocaine, while suburban whites are more likely to use
powder, more than 80 percent of those in prison under the law are either
black or Hispanic.

Under the bill, the amount of crack and powder that would set off the
mandatory sentence would be equalized at a half-ounce.

The action came after Gov. M. Jodi Rell vetoed an earlier version of the
bill because she felt the proposed amounts of the drugs that would trigger
the mandatory sentence -- an ounce in each case -- were too high.

Dennis Schain, director of communications for the governor's office, said
Rell would sign the bill into law.

"This bill is exactly the compromise the governor proposed," he said. "It
is an approach that ends the disparity in sentencing between powdered and
crack cocaine in a manner that does not send a bad signal that we're easing
enforcement of our drug laws. The governor plans on signing it. ..."

Rell also has written to state officials expressing her concern about
inequities in the state's sentencing laws and asked the state Department of
Mental Health and Addiction Services to establish detoxification programs
for cocaine abusers.

Deputy President Pro Tempore Sen. Ernest E. Newton II, D-Bridgeport,
endorsed the bill.

"Now that we've got the governor and two state departments looking into
this, it's going to go somewhere," he said. "There's something wrong with
the system when an inner-city youth is going to do five years in jail for
possessing one-half gram of crack, but it takes 56 times that amount in
powdered cocaine for a suburban resident to do the same time."

But not everyone was happy with the new bill.

State Rep. Minnie Gonzalez, D-Hartford, said the black and Hispanic caucus
had worked hard on the original bill and supported the amendment in the
understanding that there would be money attached for treatment of people
with drug addictions.

"But everything changed when we went back to the governor's office,"
Gonzalez said. "There was no money for treatment. What happened? Who lied
to us? Who played with us? We know that it is our people that are
suffering. The jails are packed with our kids."