OUTDATED DRUG LAWS

To the Editor:

Gov. George E. Pataki's recent commutation of Emmanuel Nkemakolam's
15-years-to-life sentence for felony drug possession (news article, Dec.
28) is a welcome action.

But even more welcome would be a reform of the state's 30-year-old
Rockefeller drug laws, which annually produce indefensible sentences for
thousands of low-level drug offenders, only a few of whom are lucky enough
to be pardoned.

Year after year, Albany promises action on this matter; and year after
year, stalemate in Albany leaves these laws unchanged.

Maybe 2004 will finally bring an end to this mass incarceration. It should
not be possible in a state that honors fiscal responsibility as well as
human rights.

CORINNE A. CAREY

New York, Dec. 29, 2003

The writer is a researcher at Human Rights Watch