Pubdate: Fri, 23 Jun 2000 Source: Associated Press Copyright: 2000 Associated Press Author: Samuel Maull, AP Writer PLAN FOR NONVIOLENT ADDICTS COMING NEW YORK (AP) - A reform package introduced by the state's top court officials aims to reduce drug addiction and drug-related crimes, saving taxpayers hundred of millions of dollars. State courts will start using their ``coercive'' powers immediately to get nonviolent drug offenders into treatment programs, said Chief Judge Judith Kaye, adding that 75 percent of people arrested test positive for drugs. While accepting treatment is ultimately voluntary, the courts would offer it to every nonviolent drug offender identified, said Jonathan Lippman, the state's chief administrative judge. The reform package was announced Thursday. Defendants who opt for treatment would plead guilty and be sentenced for their crimes, then have their sentences deferred pending successful completion of a treatment program. They would then be eligible for a lighter sentence on the original offense. ``For dropouts and failures, there will be immediate incarceration,'' Lippman said. The decision comes in response to a 400 percent increase in drug cases over the past 20 years, and is among the recommendations by the state Commission on Drugs and the Courts. Kaye created the 27-member panel last October. ``Drug addicts clog the courts' dockets,'' the 126-page report said, ``and they are often recidivists. An addict who ends up criminally charged is likely to be responsible for multiple drug and drug-related crimes.'' The report shows 12 percent of offenders who graduate from drug treatment programs commit more crimes, compared to 35 percent of offenders who test positive for drugs and simply go to jail or are paroled without being treated for substance abuse. Lippman said the initiative, believed to be the first such statewide program in the country, is expected eventually to cut the recidivism rate by two-thirds and save the state some $500 million a year. - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck