CHANGES IN DRUG LAWS TIED TO SAVINGS

ALBANY - Advocates for reforming New York's strict Rockefeller-era drug
laws said Tuesday the state's budget problems make changing the laws more
important.

The state could save more than $91 million by sending people convicted of
second, nonviolent felony offenses to drug treatment instead of prison,
according to the Legal Action Center.

"What we found, I believe, are really dramatic savings for the state," said
Anita Marton, senior attorney with the Legal Action Center, a nonprofit
organization that focuses on criminal justice, addiction and AIDS.

Gov. George Pataki and legislative leaders have said they want changes in
the Rockefeller-era drug laws, which require prison terms for possession of
relatively small amounts of narcotics. But the state has not enacted any of
the reform plans put forward over the past few years.

When asked about the possibility of drug law reform this year, Senate
Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, would say only that it is being
studied.

The Legal Action Center said its study showed the state could save $30,666
to $74,243 for every second felony offender diverted from prison to a
treatment program.

If 3,000 second felony offenders were diverted, the state would save
anywhere from $91.9 million to $222.7 million. The Legal Action Center
estimates more than 3,000 New York prisoners who are incarcerated for
second, nonviolent felony offenses could be sent to treatment if the drug
laws were changed.

The center's figures include the savings from reduced health care and
welfare costs as well as increased tax contributions from rehabilitated
offenders, Marton said. The savings also take into account the cost of
treatment.

Treatment centers have some extra capacity now, but there would be a
one-time, upfront cost to provide additional space in residential treatment
centers, Marton said. That cost would depend on how many people were
diverted, she said. The New York Association of Alcoholism and Substance
Abuse Providers joined with the Legal Action Center in calling for changes
to the drug laws.

Veronica Uss, who received treatment for alcoholism and is now director of
a treatment program in the Catskills, said she doesn't understand why
changes to the laws have stalled.

"I'm baffled because we have had, for years, the statistics. We know that
treatment works. We know that it saves money," she said. "But somehow there
is a disconnect between reality - facts and statistics and savings - and
public policy."

Marton said that given the state's budget gap, she hopes officials will
look at the potential savings from drug law reform. Pataki said Monday the
state has a $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion revenue shortfall, based on 2001
taxes due April 16.

The drug law statutes were enacted in the mid-1970s at the direction of
then-Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller.

Reformers long have argued the laws are unfair, and cost the state more
than if it diverted offenders to treatment.

Prosecutors in New York have opposed broad changes to the drug laws. They
argue judges and district attorneys already can send most nonviolent drug
offenders to treatment programs instead of prison.