LAW ENFORCEMENT ENTERS THE FRAY OVER ROLLING BACK DRUG SENTENCING

ALBANY- The entrance of law enforcement agencies into the debate over
changing drug offender sentencing statues in New York is designed to
shape reforms, not thwart them, organizers said.

Police and prosecutors are attempting to present a unified front
through their new group, called the Law Enforcement Coalition Against
drug Decriminalization, said Oneida County District Attorney Michael
Arcuri, president of the state District Attorneys Association.

A joint state Senate-Assembly conference committee is trying to reach
a compromise agreement on rolling back the notoriously harsh drug
sentencing laws. It meets again today, though time for a deal is
getting short with the scheduled June 22 deadline for the end of the
regular 2004 legislative session looming.

"We are not trying to kill reform," Arcuri said. "We are not trying to
kill the negotiations. As the DA's association has said in the past,
we would support reasonable changes to the drug laws. There are
certain aspects to these proposals that we will not support."

In addition to the District Attorneys Association, other groups in the
coalition are those representing sheriffs, police chiefs and police
unions.

As the talks have progressed so far, negotiators have tentatively
agreed to scale back the harshest of the so-called Rockefeller drug
laws, which subject offenders to maximum life sentences for possession
or sale of relatively small amounts of controlled substances. They
also agreed to ease punishments for the drug offences at the lowest
end of the scale.

But the Republican Senate and Democratic Assembly have so far not been
able to bridge differences over the middle-tier offenders, who now
generally face 4 1/2-to-9 year sentences if they are repeat offenders.

Arcuri said prosecutors want to retain the right to block the
diversion of drug offenders to treatment. And the prosecutors and
police agencies in the new coalition want to prevent most drug
offenders from avoiding prison entirely in favor of treatment programs.

Michael Blain of the Drug Policy Alliance, a group favoring drug law
reform, said the forceful entry of law enforcement's voice in the
reform debate was expected.

"We have a strategy for the DA's," Blain said. "The Drug Policy
Alliance is not prepared to come public with it. But we are pulling
out all the stops to get real reform."