SENATE PASSES TRUNCATED VERSION OF DRUG LAW REFORM

ALBANY, N.Y. -- The state Senate came up with a wrinkle Wednesday in the
long-debated reworking of state drug laws still known by the name of former
Gov. Nelson Rockefeller.

The Senate approved a bill favored by its Republican majority that would
deal only with the harshest categories of the mandatory sentencing laws.
They are the A-1 and A-2 offenders, and they subject violators to minimum
sentences of 15 years to life in prison.

The bill would replace the 15-year-to-life penalty with a determinate
sentence of 10 to 20 years. That would reduce the minimum time offenders
would spend in prison to 10 years, from 15 years, with further reductions
possible through merit and good time.

The bill would also reduce penalties for A-2 offenders to between three and
14 years.

The measure would allow offenders serving 15-year-to-life sentences to
reapply for re-sentencing under the new guidelines.

"I don't know if this is Rockefeller reform light or what," said Martin
Connor of Brooklyn, the Senate's Democratic leader.

But Sen. Pedro Espada of the Bronx, a Democrat who has switched his
allegiance to the Republicans, said small steps toward reforming the drug
laws are also useful.

"Whether its 100 or 800 or a 1,000 (offenders) at a time, we have to move
forward," Espada said.

The bill was approved on a party line vote, with 36 Republicans in favor
and 24 Democrats opposed.

The Democratic speaker of the state Assembly, Sheldon Silver, quickly
dismissed the Republican Senate bill.

"This does not resolve the issue," he said Wednesday night. "This is the
half-a-percent solution that deals with a minuscule amount of the overall
problem. We are not interested."

The Senate, Assembly and Gov. George Pataki have all favored reducing the
up-to-life in prison sentence for people caught with relatively small
amounts of narcotics or cocaine.

"Where we all agree, in the most egregious cases, we can pass a bill right
away that can result tomorrow in those people who are in jail petitioning
to get released," said John McArdle, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader
Joseph Bruno.

Pataki said Wednesday night that softening the A-1 and A-2 penalties "is an
important step forward that could make a meaningful and immediate
difference for hundreds of families." The governor said he also still wants
more comprehensive changes in the drug laws.

Estimates of how many inmates the bill would apply to varied in the Senate
Wednesday night from less than 100 to as many as 900.

The drug law debate has focused more on the thousands of inmates serving
less harsh, but still mandatory sentences for drugs. Those sentences often
carry a minimum of 8 1/3 years in prison, and advocates for changes say
many of those offenders should be sent to drug treatment centers to kick
addictions rather than state prisons.

Pataki, a Republican seeking re-election this November, and the Senate
favor an expansion of treatment opportunities for nonviolent drug
offenders. The Assembly backs a far more ambitious plan for diverting
offenders to treatment.

Prosecutors in the state are opposed to the Assembly plan, contending it
could allow some violent drug offenders to avoid prison by entering
treatment although they are not addicts.

Julie Kowitz, director of the women in prison project at the state
Correctional Association, said the Senate's truncated plan is inadequate.
Besides reductions in sentence length, drug reform must also restore more
judicial sentencing discretion and provide more money for court-mandated
drug treatment, she said.

"To simply reduce the sentences for A-1 and A-2 offenders would leave out
vast numbers of convicted drug felons who deserve some relief from the
draconian drug laws," she said.