LEADERS FAR APART ON DRUG LAW REFORMS

ALBANY - Republican Gov. George Pataki and the Democrat-dominated state
Assembly have publicly laid out their bargaining positions on easing the
state's mandatory sentencing laws for nonviolent drug offenders, and
despite their declarations of eagerness to compromise they are not close to
making a deal.

The fundamental differences separating the two sides have not been bridged
since Pataki first expressed interest soon after his election as governor
in softening the laws which carry former Gov. Nelson Rockefeller's name.

Pataki wants prosecutors throughout the state to retain a significant role
in deciding which offenders become eligible for drug treatment and, if
those criminals complete therapy, avoid prison. The Assembly says the
governor's insistence on a meaningful role for local district attorneys or
their representatives would mean the bulk of offenders who should be
"diverted" to treatment would still end up behind bars.

While both sides insist that changing the drug laws is at or near the top
of their list of priorities, they entered the probable next-to-last week of
the 2002 regular session of the state Legislature Monday without a deal,
nor with any seeming momentum toward reaching one.

"Our biggest fear . . . is that we spend another year in trading concepts,"
said state Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry, a Queens Democrat who chairs his
chamber's corrections committee.

In that regard, both sides have advanced either some new ideas or agreed to
accept those from their rival they have previously rejected.

The Assembly, for instance, favors training about addiction for all judges
who would be in a position to hear drug cases. The idea is that they would
better be able to recognize offenders who can succeed in treatment and
those better suited for prison.

Pataki proposed that the criminal records of drug offenders successfully
completing treatment be expunged.

But this is largely tinkering around the edges.

Past the unresolved philosophical differences at the heart of the dispute,
there are also political concerns underlying the drug law debate. Those are
amplified in a year like 2002, when the governor is running for re-election
and all members of the state Legislature also face the electorate.

No one in Albany wants to look "soft" on criminals, least of all Pataki. He
has tried to build an image among New York voters as a tough-on-crime
governor. Any easing of the drug laws is sure to cost him some support
among conservatives and prosecutors, but he wants to limit those potential
opponents to hard-liners.

Pataki has also been trying to curry favor among black and Hispanic
constituents. Minorities make up the vast majority of offenders facing long
sentences under mandatory drug statutes, and the Rockefeller drug laws are
unpopular in minority communities.

On the other hand, Democrats could be seen as trying to wound Pataki at the
November polls in the Democrats' traditional constituencies by denying him
a deal on drug law reform.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, dismissed the
suggestion that political calculations are involved in the Rockefeller drug
law debate.

"This is not about elections," he said. "This is about people."

Likewise, Pataki's criminal justice coordinator Chauncey Parker, has been
reaching out to prison rights groups, drug law reform advocates and others
whose opinions have not before been sounded out by the administration about
changes in the drug statutes. "It is the top priority of the governor to
get this done," Parker said. "When I started this job four months ago he
told me to go speak to all the people who were involved. He said there were
good, passionate people on all sides of the issue. We are going all out, a
full-court press to accomplish meaningful reform."

But the fact that both the Assembly and Pataki made a symbolic laying out
of the cards of where they stand on reform does not bode well for a
negotiated settlement this year.

Albany does not resolve its most intractable differences that way.

On the tough issues, the governor and the chief leaders of the state
Legislature retire to behind closed doors - usually Pataki's office on the
second floor of the state Capitol - and they deal in secret. They managed
for weeks to keep secret a multibillion-dollar health care financing bill
they were negotiating in this fashion in late 2001 and early 2002, to only
cite the latest example of how they prefer to do work.

Once a deal is make, legislative leaders tell their majorities and
reporters about the agreements and lawmakers ratify them on the floor of
each legislative chamber to tie up the loose legal ends.

So far, the urgency to start this ball rolling on drug law reform has not
been evident in Albany.