Pubdate: Sun, 1 Mar 2009
Source: New York Times (NY)
Page: A20
Copyright: 2009 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Jeremy W. Peters
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/rehab.htm (Treatment)

LEGISLATION TO OVERHAUL ROCKEFELLER DRUG LAWS MOVES AHEAD SWIFTLY

On a fall afternoon in 2002, the New York City police broke up a 
protest in front of Gov. George E. Pataki's office in Midtown 
Manhattan and hauled a dozen demonstrators away.

The protesters were demanding that Mr. Pataki repeal the state's 
30-year-old drug sentencing laws, widely regarded as the nation's 
most unforgiving. One of those placed in plastic handcuffs and carted 
off to a police station was a state senator named David A. Paterson.

Now, with Mr. Paterson in the governor's mansion and Democrats in 
control of both houses of the State Legislature, an aggressive effort 
is under way to finally dismantle what remains of the stringent 
1970s-era drug laws, which imposed stiff mandatory sentences as a way 
to combat the heroin epidemic then gripping New York City.

The Assembly is expected to pass legislation on Tuesday that would 
once again give judges the discretion to send those found guilty of 
having smaller amounts of illegal drugs to substance-abuse treatment 
instead of prison and allow thousands of inmates convicted of 
nonviolent drug offenses to apply to have their sentences reduced or commuted.

Meanwhile, the governor's office is preparing legislation that it 
plans to present to Senate leaders on Monday that would also give 
judges discretion in sentencing, according to a senior administration 
official involved in drafting the bills. But for now, the governor is 
not taking a position on whether sentences should be reduced for some 
prisoners.

For its part, the Senate is expected to take up legislation in the 
coming weeks that would also be aimed at strengthening judges' roles 
in sentencing.

"Returning discretion to judges is really the heart of where we want 
to go," said Jeffrion L. Aubry, an assemblyman who represents Queens 
and has led efforts to overturn the statutes, known as the 
Rockefeller drug laws because Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller made them a 
centerpiece of his agenda.

"When we take away those mandatory minimums and restore judicial 
discretion, that's when you can say Rockefeller is no longer there," 
Mr. Aubry said.

The State Legislature has already eliminated the stiffest provisions 
of the laws, doing away in 2004 with life sentences for drug crimes 
and reducing other penalties for the most serious offenses.

But now Democratic leaders see an opportunity to take aim at the 
judicial underpinnings of the laws by untying the hands of judges, 
who are often bound to mandatory minimum sentences even for less 
serious drug crimes.

As lawmakers debate changing the drug laws in the weeks ahead, 
restoring judicial discretion will be one of the thorniest issues in 
the discussions. The Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, said he thinks 
any plan that does not give judges authority to send drug offenders 
to treatment is doomed to fail.

"I think any bill that doesn't provide that diversion option is 
really not something that's significant reform, plain and simple," 
Mr. Silver said in an interview. "There is nothing else at this point 
that would be meaningful in terms of reform."

But the idea of restoring full judicial discretion is troubling to 
many prosecutors, who in a vast majority of drug crimes must give 
consent before a suspect is ordered to a treatment program.

"The district attorney's input would be taken out of the equation," 
said Bridget G. Brennan, the special narcotics prosecutor for New 
York City. "When I look at cases, I want to have the discretion as 
gatekeeper, to make sure that somebody I put back out in the 
community is not going to pose a public safety threat. A district 
attorney has a much clearer picture of a community's concerns."

But under the plans favored by the governor, the Assembly and the 
Senate, prosecutors would lose that veto power.

Senate Republicans, who hold 30 out of the 62 seats in the chamber 
and could block a bill that they deem too lenient by recruiting just 
one Democrat, are concerned about any drug laws that would allow 
offenders to use treatment as a get-out-of-jail-free option.

"We can give judges more latitude, but we have to make sure there's 
someplace for drug felons to go, and that they don't just walk out," 
said Senator Dale Volker, who represents a district outside Buffalo 
and who led the Senate committee that oversaw the changes to the 
Rockefeller laws in 2004.

"There are a lot of questions to be answered," Mr. Volker said. "How 
will these people stay in treatment? Will they just end up back on the street?"

The lack of what those involved in criminal justice considered 
successful treatment programs led Rockefeller to seek life sentences 
for the most serious drug offenses. Though Rockefeller initially 
helped build one of the most extensive state treatment programs in 
the nation, he became exasperated as drug felons slipped through the 
cracks and New York's drug epidemic only grew worse.

"By 1973, Rocky was disgusted and frustrated," said Pamala Griset, an 
associate professor of criminal justice and legal studies at the 
University of Central Florida. "So what he proposed was a 180-degree 
turnaround from the rehabilitative sentencing structure he first favored."

Beyond undoing the last of the Rockefeller-era laws, those supporting 
the reforms being shaped in Albany say, New York should establish a 
treatment program that serves as a national model different from the 
one the state created 35 years ago, when the laws became the impetus 
for a nationwide movement toward extended mandatory drug sentences.

"This is an opportunity to reduce the number of people who are in 
prison for nonviolent drug offenses," said Senator Eric T. 
Schneiderman, a Democrat who represents Upper Manhattan and the Bronx 
and is sponsoring legislation to repeal parts of the state's drug 
sentencing code. "And frankly, it is an opportunity to shift the 
framework of drug policy in America from a model centered on incarceration."

One possibility, favored by the governor, would be to include 
Rockefeller drug law reform in the budget negotiations, which under 
state law must be completed by April 1.

Regardless of when it happens, advocates of overhauling the drug laws 
say this is an opportunity that should not be squandered.

"I've been hanging around there at the Capitol trying to make changes 
to these laws all my life," said the Rev. Peter Young, who directs a 
statewide drug rehabilitation program. "Now we have the best shot of 
any year I've seen." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake