HUNDREDS TO BE FREED EARLY UNDER DRUG LAW

LANSING -(AP)- More than 200 prison inmates will be released early starting
next week under a new law that eliminates mandatory minimum sentences for
drug crimes.

The law takes effect Saturday and by October, some 700 people will be
eligible for parole under the new guidelines. Forty of the 258 first-time
drug offenders already granted parole under the new law will leave prison on
March 6, said Russ Marlan, spokesman for the Department of Corrections.

State Rep. Bill McConico, a Detroit Democrat who sponsored the bill that was
signed late last year by then-Gov. John Engler, said families affected by
the strict drug law will have reason to celebrate next week.

"We're going to have the opportunity for people and families to be reunited
who were torn apart by a draconian sentence structure," McConico said
Wednesday.

Under the current law, someone possessing 50 to 224 grams of drugs in
Michigan must be sentenced to at least 10 years and up to 20 years in
prison. The new law eliminates the 10-year minimum, allowing the judge to
sentence an offender for any time up to 20 years.

Among those set to be released under the law is Karen Shook, a Waterford
bank teller sentenced to at least 20 years in prison in 1993 for setting up
a drug deal. She is scheduled to be released on April 28 -- 10 years before
her original release date, Marlan said.

The new law takes effect as the prison population gets dangerously close to
its 50,000 capacity and the state faces a $1.7-billion deficit in the
upcoming fiscal year. By the Associated Press