Pubdate: Friday, June 25, 1999

Source: Times Union (NY)
Copyright: 1999, Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation
Contact:  Box 15000, Albany, NY 12212
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By Lara Jakes, Capitol Bureau

A RALLYING CRY FOR DRUG LAW CHANGES

Albany -- Supporters of Rockefeller revisions plan rallies to urge
legislative action

Supporters of reforming the Rockefeller Drug Laws plan to turn up the heat
this summer, rallying in key state legislators' districts and calling their
Capitol offices before the session officially closes.

The Legislature was scheduled to adjourn last week, but lawmakers will be
back at least through mid-July to work on a state budget, which is now 86
days late.

The 26-year-old drug laws mandate lengthy prison sentences for even minor
offenses, and advocates hope the Legislature will consider reforms as it
approves a spending plan.

On Thursday, a handful of protesters stood outside the Rensselaer County
Courthouse -- located in the district of Republican Senate Majority Leader
Joseph Bruno of Brunswick.

The day before, a group picketed the district office of Democratic Assembly
Speaker Sheldon Silver in Manhattan, where they gathered more than 950
signatures on a petition.

"We're not asking for anything radical, we're just asking for conscientious
lawmaking: Go in and change some bad laws,'' said Terri Derikart, executive
director of the New York chapter of Families Against Mandatory Minimums.

Lawmakers are "already on record saying that these laws are awful. They
don't do what they were intended (to do), so why can't we just go and
change them?'' Derikart said.

Under the Rockefeller Drug Laws, a person with no prior record and no
history of violence who is convicted of possessing four ounces or selling
two ounces of a narcotic faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years to
life. No other state has such a tough law, nor does the federal government.

Reformers who have been pushing for change for at least a decade had widely
believed they would succeed in 1999, an off-election year. But bickering
between Silver and Gov. George Pataki has so far stonewalled reforms.

Three state senators and two assemblymen have introduced reform bills this
year. And Pataki has proposed scaling back the laws, but only in exchange
for ending parole for all felons -- a trade-off that most Assembly
Democrats would refuse.

Bruno spokesman John McArdle said the majority leader would not consider
the reforms until a budget is approved. Whether Bruno will take up reforms
after that is unclear, but he supports change "in the context of other
criminal justice reforms,'' said McArdle, who declined to elaborate.

Silver spokeswoman Patricia Lynch also declined comment on the rally
outside Silver's Manhattan office Wednesday.

Despite the stepped-up efforts, Randy Credico of the William Moses Kunstler
Foundation said he is beginning to believe there will be no real movement
on the reforms this year. Credico organized the rally outside the speaker's
office.

"I'm looking at next year for major reform,'' he said.

Several passers-by at the courthouse in Troy were, at least, familiar with
the drug laws. "I think they're harsh,'' said one woman who would only
identify herself as 28-year-old Jane from Latham. "If you only get seven
years (in prison) for rape, you shouldn't get 15 years for drugs. But I
think they should make (penalties for) rape higher and not lessen the
drugs. If you do something wrong, you should go to jail.''

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