Pubdate: Mon, 23 Feb 2009 Source: New York Daily News (NY) Copyright: 2009 Daily News, L.P. Contact: http://www.nydailynews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/295 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?140 (Rockefeller Drug Laws) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion) BILL FROM ASSEMBLY'S DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY IS A CRIME The Assembly's Democratic majority today launches a drive to soften state drug laws. Pray it fails, because at risk is continued success in the war on crime. They're rolling out legislation pushed by so-called reformers who have long agitated to weaken penalties under the tough Rockefeller drug laws. The bill is a dream come true for dealers, as well as for proponents of decriminalization. The measure is based on the outdated perception that the Rockefeller laws have packed prisons with hapless addicts and unwitting first-time offenders - when actually, the statutes have played an important role in cleaning up the streets. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and his members act as if the superstringent laws, enacted in the 1970s - under which simple possession of cocaine could lead to life in prison - are still in place. They're not. In fact, the harshest provisions have been repealed. Reforms in 2004 and 2005 abolished life sentences for drug crimes and gave inmates doing time under the old law the chance to win lighter sentences. Even those changes went too far. A report by Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan looked at 65 drug convicts who got shorter terms. Only one fit the reformers' stereotype of a low-level, nonviolent offender serving an unduly harsh sentence. The rest were kingpins and hard-core dealers with violent histories who belonged behind bars. The reality is that most offenders who deal to support their habits are diverted into treatment. By and large, druggies going upstate are gang members who run drug markets in housing projects and abandoned buildings - terrorizing entire neighborhoods. The Assembly would make many of those gangsters eligible for probation or a few months in local jail. Judges would have final word on who gets leniency - not prosecutors with a fuller picture of offender backgrounds. Brennan and others on the front lines of the drug wars strongly oppose the Assembly's wholesale changes. And a sentencing reform commission has argued for a more cautious approach, preserving mandatory terms for most serious drug crimes. New Yorkers must not forget the destruction that the trade in crack cocaine, heroin and other narcotics wreaked on the city. Nor should there be any doubt of a clear connection between trafficking and crime. Nor any doubt that tough laws gave police the backing they needed to rid the streets of very bad, very dangerous types. Those laws, as modified, strike the right balance - allowing treatment for addicts but delivering justice against those who spread mayhem. Gov. Paterson and the state Senate must stop the Assembly's madness. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin