Pubdate: Tue, 06 Aug 2002
Source: Times Union (Albany, NY)
Copyright: 2002 Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation
Contact:  http://www.timesunion.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/452
Author: Elizabeth Benjamin

CUOMO OFFERS DRUG LAW REFORMS

Albany-- Plan Would Base Sentence On Role in Crime Rather Than On the 
Weight of Narcotics Involved

Striving to separate himself from his opponents, Democratic gubernatorial 
hopeful Andrew Cuomo on Monday unveiled a plan to reform the strict 
Rockefeller Drug Laws that goes farther in some areas than proposals by the 
governor and state Legislature.

Cuomo, the former federal housing secretary, is the first challenger of 
Republican Gov. George Pataki to put out his own drug law reform plan -- 
although the outline he presented at a news conference in New York City was 
short on details.

The heart of Cuomo's plan was a proposal to base sentencing of convicted 
drug offenders on the role they played in a crime rather than the weight of 
drugs they sold or possessed at the time of their arrest. The 1973 
Rockefeller Drug Laws mandate long to life sentences for those convicted of 
selling or possessing relatively small amounts of narcotics.

Cuomo said his plan would "restore rationality to our state's drug 
policies," and he criticized Pataki for failing to reach a compromise on 
reform with the Legislature. Opponents of Pataki's reform proposal say it 
doesn't return enough discretion to judges and won't help low-level 
offenders, the bulk of drug convicts.

Pataki spokesman Michael McKeon said drug law negotiations between the 
governor and the Legislature are continuing. McKeon did not comment on 
Cuomo's plan.

Steven Greenberg, a spokesman for Cuomo's Democratic opponent, state 
Comptroller H. Carl McCall, said McCall has long supported drug law reform 
but doesn't see the need to draw up his own plan.

"If the governor wanted real reform, we could have it today; all the 
elements are there," Greenberg said.

Cuomo called for the repeal of mandatory minimum sentences for all 
nonviolent, low-level drug offenders and an increase in penalties for 
offenders who commit violent crimes with a deadly weapon. He said 
sentencing discretion should be returned to judges and treatment should be 
offered instead of prison for nonviolent offenders "when appropriate."

Cuomo did not offer details on how offenders would be determined nonviolent 
or who would decide which offenders should be sent to treatment rather than 
prison -- two central sticking points of the drug law reform debate. He 
called for a creation of a "fast track" commission to address these issues 
and establish sentencing guidelines.

Robert Gangi, executive director of the Correctional Association of New 
York, a prison watchdog group, said Cuomo appeared to be "hedging his bets 
by not quite calling for a full repeal." But, Gangi said, Cuomo's plan is 
also "far more sweeping" than what has been proposed by Pataki and the 
Legislature.

Albany County District Attorney Paul Clyne, a Democrat, dismissed much of 
Cuomo's proposal, saying the role drug offenders played in the event that 
led to their arrest already is considered by judges, prosecutors and 
defense attorneys through the plea bargaining process.
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