TARGETING TRAFFICKERS

Regarding your Feb. 18 editorial "Smarter prison priorities":

There seems to be some confusion as to what sentencing changes the
Sentencing Commission has actually recommended to the legislature. On
behalf of the N.C. Narcotic Enforcement Officers Association (NCNEOA),
representing over 500 narcotics officers in North Carolina, I would like to
clarify.

Structured sentencing, as it stands now, has virtually eliminated the
possibility of persons convicted of felony drug possession, or sale and
delivery, going to prison for the first or second conviction, unless they
violate the terms of their probationary sentence. Even though law
enforcement officers were not very pleased with this sentencing change, it
was offset with the provision that persons convicted of drug trafficking
offenses would receive minimum mandatory sentences, as has been the case in
North Carolina since the 1980s.

In other words, people selling large amounts of illegal drugs, preying on
our children and society, would go to prison for a substantial length of
time, upon conviction for drug trafficking. These mandatory drug
trafficking sentences are what the Sentencing Commission recommends be
reduced, not the sentences of drug users.

While Correction Department figures reflect that less than 5 percent of our
prison population consists of persons convicted of drug trafficking, it has
been targeted for serious sentence reductions.

NCNEOA stands very much in favor of drug prevention and education to keep
our children off of drugs, and court-ordered treatment for drug users, but
not at the expense of putting away these vile peddlers of this poison on
society, illegal drugs.

STEVEN G. SURRATT

President, N.C. Narcotic Enforcement Officers' Association

Goldsboro