Pubdate: Thu, 06 Jun 2002 Source: New York Times (NY) Copyright: 2002 The New York Times Company Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298 Section: New York Region Author: James C. McKinley Jr. DEMOCRATS TRY TO BREAK A DEADLOCK ON DRUG LAWS ALBANY, June 5 - The Democratic majority in the Assembly tried today to break a year-old deadlock with the governor over changing New York's harsh penalties for drug crimes, putting forward a compromise bill that accepts several of the governor's proposals. The Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, said the new proposal represented "the last, best hope" for reaching an agreement with Gov. George E. Pataki before the end of the legislative session in two weeks. "We are trying to provide the leadership necessary to move this particular issue to reality," Mr. Silver said. "We are trying to meet the governor more than halfway." In political terms, the Democrats want to appear to be calling Mr. Pataki's bluff. In the last 18 months, the governor has said repeatedly that softening the stiff penalties enacted in the 1970's was one of his top priorities. But the governor has remained at loggerheads with Assembly Democrats over how much leeway judges should be given to send addicted felons into treatment programs rather than to prison. He has yet to introduce a bill, leading some liberal advocates of repealing the drug laws to question his commitment. The stiff penalties, enacted in the 1970's under Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, anger many black and Latino residents and are likely to become a hot issue in the governor's race, as Mr. Pataki and his Democratic rivals vie for those votes. Nine out of 10 people in prison for drug offenses are black or Hispanic. In practice, district attorneys now decide who qualifies for drug treatment, and they have been reluctant to relinquish that power. Last month, a senior aide to the governor began circulating a new proposal that would have allowed a defendant to appeal the prosecutor's decision to a specially trained judge, who could overrule the decision using strict guidelines. Mr. Silver and his colleagues said today they were willing to accept that concept, but without guidelines that tied a judge's hands. They also said they would rather train all judges to assess drug addicts instead of creating a special group of judges. The Assembly Democrats also offered to adopt the governor's proposed schedule of sentences, which reduces prison terms and removes the possibility of life imprisonment for the top two classes of drug offenders. They would also go along with Mr. Pataki's desire to eliminate parole and have judges determine precisely how much time a convicted person should serve, with a specified range for those drug offenders. But the Assembly proposal would keep parole and less definite sentencing guidelines for lower classes of felonies, which make up a vast majority. The Assembly also balked at the governor's proposal to impose a five-year mandatory sentence on anyone who carries a gun while committing a drug offense. Mr. Silver said the Assembly would adopt a similar penalty in a different bill. The governor's office reacted cautiously to the Assembly's proposal. "We are glad they have offered a new proposal and are reviewing it," said the governor's chief spokesman, Michael McKeon. Privately, however, an administration official said Mr. Pataki would not accept some provisions in the fine print in the Assembly bill, which undermine the governor's proposals. "The concern that we have is the bill does not match the rhetoric in the press release," the official said. On the other side of the debate, Democrats and those seeking to repeal the laws have made the same charge about the governor. They maintain that the bill he introduced last year gave judges too little discretion, would have resulted in longer sentences for many felons and tacked on tougher penalties for marijuana possession. By introducing their compromise bill today, the Democrats and advocates for changing the laws hope to seize the issue from the governor, and, if he fails to reach an agreement with them, lay the blame at his feet in November. "Since he's using this as a major issue to court Latino and African- American voters, we think it's really important to push this out in the open and see how serious he really is," said Deborah Small of the Drug Policy Alliance, an advocacy group. This week, Mr. Pataki plans to submit his bill, the product of months of work by his criminal justice coordinator, Chauncey G. Parker. He has denied that he has a political motive for changing the laws. Mr. Silver also denied that the Democrats' bill today was intended to upstage the governor. The Democrats are willing to give Mr. Pataki a victory that will help him in the election in return for finally softening the penalties. "This is not about elections," he said. "This is about people. It's about governing." - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart