Pubdate: Wed, 08 Dec 2004
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2004 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Michael Cooper
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?140 (Rockefeller Drug Laws)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

NEW YORK STATE VOTES TO REDUCE DRUG SENTENCES

ALBANY, Dec. 7 - After years of false starts, state lawmakers voted Tuesday 
evening to reduce the steep mandatory prison sentences given to people 
convicted of drug crimes in New York State, sanctions considered among the 
most severe in the nation.

The push to soften the so-called Rockefeller drug laws came after a nearly 
decade-long campaign to ease the drug penalties instituted in the 1970's 
that put some low-level first-time drug offenders behind bars for sentences 
ranging from 15 years to life.

Under the changes passed Tuesday, which Gov. George E. Pataki said he would 
sign, the sentence for those same offenders would be reduced to 8 to 20 
years in prison. The law will allow more than 400 inmates serving lengthy 
prison terms on those top counts to apply to judges to get out of jail early.

The changes reflected a nationwide push in recent years to lessen some of 
the punishments for drug offenders, as states like Michigan and 
Pennsylvania have moved to emphasize drug treatment options or to give 
judges more discretion in sentencing those convicted of narcotics crimes.

The law's passage also represented a major achievement for a state 
legislature that studies have called the least efficient in the nation. 
Until now, state leaders have strived for years and without success to 
overhaul the drug laws, named for Nelson A. Rockefeller, who was governor 
when they were enacted.

The State Legislature also broke another logjam Tuesday when it passed a 
bill authorizing the expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on 
the West Side of Manhattan so that New York City could compete with other 
cities for major conventions.

As part of that deal, the Republican-led State Senate won a provision that 
$350 million would be spent on other projects outside of New York City, and 
the Democrat-controlled State Assembly ensured that the bill remained 
neutral on the question of whether to allow the New York Jets to build a 
football stadium on the site. [Page B1.]

While some elected officials and drug policy advocates hailed the drug 
sentencing changes as a major step forward, others complained that they did 
not go far enough. They complained that inmates serving what they called 
unduly long prison terms for lesser crimes would not be allowed to apply 
for early release, and that judges were not given the power to sentence 
some offenders to treatment programs rather than prison.

"This is it?" an exasperated State Senator Thomas Duane, a Manhattan 
Democrat, shouted during the debate. "This is it? After all this time, this 
is what comes to the floor? It would be an unbelievable stretch to call 
this Rockefeller drug reform."

But Russell Simmons, the hip-hop mogul who had vigorously pushed for the 
changes, said he was "very, very happy," and credited pressure from the 
hip-hop community for raising awareness on the issue.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver credited a changed political landscape - 
including the election of a new district attorney in Albany County, David 
Soares, who ran with the backing of the Working Families Party on a 
platform seeking drug-law changes - for bringing the state's leaders to a 
compromise. He said he would continue to push for more changes next year.

"It isn't everything we wanted, and I think we will continue to press for 
some of those things, but I think the climate has changed here," he said.

In the mad scramble of late-session activity, though, several significant 
issues remained undone: how to comply with a court order requiring the 
state to fix New York City's schools, and how to overhaul a budget process 
that has yielded late budgets for 20 years in a row. Senator Joseph L. 
Bruno, the Senate Republican majority leader, backed away from a plan to 
override Governor Pataki's veto of the budget overhaul bill that the 
Legislature passed earlier this year.

Governor Pataki said the new drug law "reflects a greater knowledge than we 
had 30 years ago."

Senator Bruno urged his colleagues not to underestimate the importance of 
their vote to change the state's drug laws.

"We are doing something here that changes people's lives," he said, citing 
the case of Elaine Bartlett, who served 16 years in prison for a single 
sale of cocaine, and whose story was chronicled this year in "Life on the 
Outside" by Jennifer Gonnerman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2004). "And don't 
minimize it. Please don't minimize it."

Still, he said, "There is more to be done, and we're going to get there."

A study by the Democrats in the State Senate found that New York imposed 
the harshest penalties in the nation for low-level drug offenders. It found 
that 32 states, including Texas and Florida, offer probation to nonviolent 
offenders who sell small amounts of drugs, and that New York was the only 
state that required more than three years in prison for such offenses.

But year after year, talks to overhaul the laws have fallen apart.

To reach a compromise, the Senate and Governor Pataki gave up on their 
calls to increase penalties in some areas for drug kingpins, drug dealers 
who use children as couriers and drug dealers who use guns. The Assembly 
gave up its calls to give judges the discretion to sentence offenders to 
treatment instead of prison, to allow more inmates to seek early release 
and to add more treatment options.

Assemblyman Jeffrion L. Aubry, a Queens Democrat who has led the Assembly's 
efforts to overhaul the drug laws for years, said: "We reached a point 
where you're going to do something this year or you're not. So, since 
nobody was willing to give on those other issues, you boil it down to what 
you can concur on."

But a number of drug policy advocates complained that even with the 
changes, the state's drug laws remained unduly harsh, and that the new law 
did not change the state's basic approach to fighting drugs, which they 
said has failed. Robert Gangi, the executive director of Correctional 
Association of New York, a prison monitoring group, said that the current 
system was still weighted in favor of prosecutors.

"What mandatory sentencing means is that judges no longer have the 
authority to make the threshold decision of whether someone should be 
incarcerated or not," he said. "We're supposed to have an adversarial 
system: the defense attorney on one side, the D.A. on the other side. And 
the judge is the neutral arbiter who is supposed to weigh their claims. 
What mandatory sentencing does is stack the deck in favor of one side in 
the adversarial process, and that is the prosecutors."

Mr. Gangi complained that after years of negotiations, and a brief 
flirtation with public conference committees, the final agreement was 
reached behind closed doors, with interested parties unable to weigh in.

One district attorney who was happy to see the change was Mr. Soares, the 
incoming district attorney of Albany County, who upset an incumbent, Paul 
Clyne, in a race dominated by their debate on the drug laws. And on Monday, 
District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau of Manhattan called for overhauling 
the laws.

Bertha Lewis, the co-chairwoman of the Working Families Party, which backed 
Mr. Soares's candidacy, said, "The incumbent D.A. paid a political price 
for his public opposition to reforming arcane and outdated laws, and 
clearly the State Legislature took notice."

Governor Pataki said that the deal struck Tuesday was largely the same as 
one that was nearly sealed in 2003 during a bizarre late-night negotiating 
session on the second floor of the Capitol with the leaders of the 
Legislature and Mr. Simmons. (Assemblyman Aubry, famously, was left outside 
the closed-door meeting.)

Mr. Simmons said that he was pleased something had finally happened.

"I think it is a big win," he said. "Do I believe that there is more room? 
Yes is the answer. I think the people who fought, the kids who came out, 
the artists who worked hard, I think they will embrace it. It shows their 
power. That they have a political might that can be used to benefit the 
state and the country."

Al Baker contributed reporting for this article.
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