SO LITTLE CASH FOR PRISONS, SO MUCH TIME

MIGUEL ARENAS has now served more than eight years of a 15-year-to-life
sentence for selling two ounces of cocaine. At his sentencing in 1994,
Justice Steven W. Fisher of State Supreme Court in Queens observed that he
had recently given the same sentence to someone who pleaded guilty to
possession of 800 pounds of cocaine.

"The wisdom of the drug laws is, of course, not for me to decide, but is to
be decided by the people's legislature," he said in court.

If nothing else, Mr. Arenas's sentencing was notable for the appearance of
the words wisdom, drug laws and legislature in the same sentence.

The Legislature and Gov. George E. Pataki have agreed that the
Rockefeller-era drug laws are unduly harsh, mandating longer minimum
sentences for some first-time, nonviolent drug offenses than for rape and
manslaughter. But they have failed to agree on how to change them.

Last year's common wisdom was that Governor Pataki might force a change in
the laws because he was courting the Latino vote. Mr. Arenas's 76-year-old
mother, Norma, joined other relatives of prisoners who lobbied to try to
make it happen. But ethnic politics weren't enough. Now she's pinning her
hopes on an even bigger force: the deficit.

The governor is applying buzz-saw budgeting to resolve an $11.5 billion
deficit. His corrections budget proposal would hasten the release of
nonviolent criminals who behave well in prison and prepare for life on the
outside. The governor's aides say the proposal continues his effort to
reduce the number of nonviolent offenders in prison and attack recidivism
by getting convicts to straighten up. But its $19.6 million in savings is
an added incentive, if not a motivation.

While other states facing crushing deficits have sought to reduce prison
populations as a way of cutting costs, Mr. Pataki's criminal justice
director, Chauncey Parker, blanches at the suggestion that money is playing
a role here.

It's a tough act being tough on crime and tough on spending, but Mr. Parker
is deft. "Good policies and effective government leads to savings," he said.

About 1,300 inmates could be released in the next year, including up to 800
drug offenders, continuing the decline in the prison population. Of those
eligible for release are 75 inmates who, like Mr. Arenas, are serving the
stiffest Rockefeller sentences but have already spent 10 years in prison.
Those prisoners have not previously been eligible for early release.

This is not Rockefeller law reform, nor does Mr. Pataki say it is, but the
fiscal crisis could dislodge that long-stymied effort. The Republican
governor and the Democrat-led Assembly remain divided on how much to ease
the laws and how much discretion to give judges in sentencing, but the
Democrats say their plan could ultimately save $160 million a year.

Even adjusted for Capitol accounting, that's real money.

LAST month, in his State of the State address, Governor Pataki said, "Once
and for all let's reconcile our differences and reform the failed
Rockefeller drug laws." Last year, he was more emphatic: "Let's reform the
outdated Rockefeller drug laws." A year before that, it was, "I'm hopeful
that we can come together in a bipartisan way to enact meaningful reform."

With the Mothers of the New York Disappeared, a group of relatives of drug
law inmates, Mrs. Arenas has lobbied in Albany enough to know that
principles alone rarely carry the day. "Now, because of the budget, maybe
he has the chance to do something," she said of the governor.

But she is not hopeful. Her health is failing from diabetes and she lives
alone. Every evening she arranges herself in the front room of her house in
the Bronx and waits for her son's call from prison at 6 p.m. "It's too
much," she said. "How many nights? How many hours?"

Miguel Arenas, 39, was convicted more than nine years ago. He made his own
bad luck. An Air Force veteran and mechanic, he was a supervisor at the
subway repair yard in Queens when he twice supplied cocaine to a co-worker,
who then sold it to an undercover officer. Mr. Arenas admitted the crime on
a surveillance tape.

The judge in his case had no qualms about the verdict, just the sentence.

It seemed out of balance. It does again this week, with Robert Chambers,
the so-called preppie murderer, back in the news. Mr. Chambers received a
maximum sentence of 15 years. Mr. Arenas received a 15-year minimum. Mr.
Chambers pleaded guilty to manslaughter. He is scheduled to be released on
Friday.