Source: Times Union Author: Sen. Alton Waldron Jr. Note: The writer is ranking minority member of the New York state Senate Codes Committee Pubdate: Monday March 9, 1998 Contact: http://www.timesunion.com/ LET'S LOOK AGAIN AT THE COST OF JAILING DRUG OFFENDERS I am writing in response to a recent letter by my good friend and distinguished counterpart on the Senate Codes Committee, Sen. Dale M. Volker. On Feb. 5, Senator Volker responded to a Dec. 27 editorial, "Repeal Rocky's drug laws,'' which called for an end to New York's tough mandatory sentencing statutes for drug offenders. My colleague argued that opponents of the drug laws are not looking at the whole picture when they calculate the social cost of illegal drugs. While I have the greatest respect for Senator Volker, I find the data he has used to support his argument irrelevant and his logic inconsistent. The original rationale behind the laws was twofold: tough sentencing would 1) put drug kingpins behind bars and 2) serve as a deterrent to casual users and small dealers. As your original editorial points out, one needs no more than to glance at the composition of the state's rising prison population to see that these two goals have not been served. Senator Volker further asserts that the real "point in question'' about Rocky's drug laws is cost-effectiveness; that it is a better deal for taxpayers to imprison low-level dealers and casual users than it is to rehabilitate them. As evidence, he cites U.S. Department of Justice data that calculates the cost of crime in our society at $450 billion annually. How the senator makes this leap from low-level drug offenses in New York state to aggregate national crime is baffling. The study he cites, "Victim Costs and Consequences: A New Look,'' includes only violent crimes and property crimes. And violent crime, which in the study includes everything from rape and murder to drunken driving, comprises $426 billion of the $450 billion (94.6 percent) that the senator uses in his argument. Since low-level drug offenses are nonviolent, the calculations that the senator uses to conclude that drug offenders cost society $1,800 per capita are seriously flawed, to say the least. In fact, the Justice Department study specifically excludes "most 'victimless' crimes such as drug offenses, gambling, loan sharking and prostitution.'' It costs $30,000 per year to house each inmate in the state prison system; drug-free outpatient care costs from $2,700 to $3,600 per year and residential drug treatment ranges from $17,000 to $20,000. Imprisoning a low-level nonviolent drug offender costs society far more and does nothing to address the problem of drug abuse. SEN. ALTON WALDRON JR. St. Albans Copyright 1998, Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation, Albany, N.Y.