JUSTICES CHIDE BACKERS OF ISSUE ONE CAMPAIGN

Backers of proposal don't have facts, Resnick, Moyer say By Kristy Eckert
e-mail address: keckert@coxohio.com Columbus Bureau

COLUMBUS | The trio of billionaires backing the ballot issue that would
mandate treatment instead of jail for certain drug offenders are smart, but
maybe not about Ohio, two state Supreme Court justices said Wednesday.

"They're all highly respected people," said Chief Justice Thomas Moyer, who
with Justice Alice Robie Resnick announced opposition to Issue One and sent
a letter to its backers telling them why. "We simply don't understand why
people of this prominence . . . would single out Ohio as a place to claim
there's not adequate treatment."

Moyer, a Republican, and Resnick, a Democrat, said most judges in Ohio say
they don't lock up first-time drug offenders.

"Ohio is not ignoring the problems faced by drug offenders," Resnick said.

Issue One's backers say otherwise.

"I'm sorry that the chief justice doesn't know the statistics for Ohio,
which undermine his point," said Dave Fratello, political director for the
Campaign for New Drug Policies, which is backing Issue One and is funded
mostly by billionaires Peter Lewis, George Soros and John Sperling.

"It does seem most judges believe that treatment is offered in most cases.
But the statistics show three out of four drug-possession (offenders) wind
up behind bars."

According to Fratello's group, 74 percent of offenders convicted of felony
drug possession in 2000 were incarcerated. They said the numbers come from
the Ohio Sentencing Commission, the database of the Ohio Department of
Rehabilitation and Correction and a fact sheet produced by the Ohio
Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services, which they obtained
through a public-records request.

"Until proven otherwise, it's a myth that Ohio's already treating all drug
offenders," Fratello said.

But according to the Ohio Judicial Conference, a survey of Ohio judges
conducted this spring shows that judges offer treatment to virtually 100
percent of first-time drug offenders and more than 95 percent of
second-time drug offenders. A follow-up study in Montgomery County showed
that 122 of 123 drug offenders sentenced to prison had one or more prior
felony convictions or multiple charges.

The justices said they are concerned that the issue would more than double
the length of the state's constitution. They also wonder how the state
would pay the mandated $270 million over seven years. And echoing a chorus
that judges across the state have been singing, they are worried that Issue
One takes judicial discretion away from judges.

The amendment would "simply clutter the constitution and drain the budget
of the state of Ohio," Resnick said. She and Moyer agreed it would make
better legislation.

Its backers, however, said it was introduced as legislation and not acted on.

Moyer and Resnick chuckled when they mentioned that they don't agree on
everything, but said they wanted to co-write the letter and appear together
to oppose Issue One because they feel very strongly about it.

Moyer said he would like the issue's backers to give up and give some of
their money toward the drug treatment system already set up.

"We believe that if the resources you have committed to state Issue One
were instead allocated to the system of court-directed treatment that has
been so successful here, our mutual goals could be better achieved," the
letter says.

Moyer and Resnick said they hope the trio will respond.

Fratello said that's unlikely, as are the chances of the backers giving up.

"At this point, the only thing they could do is fail to run a campaign," he
said. "And frankly, these gentlemen are committed to the issue, and they
got where they are in life by seeing their projects through to their
completion."