Pubdate: Sat, 25 Jun 2005 Source: Times Union (Albany, NY) Copyright: 2005 Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation Contact: http://www.timesunion.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/452 Author: Elizabeth Benjamin PATAKI DOUBTS DEAL ON DRUG LAW REFORM ALBANY - The Senate and Assembly have reached a two-way deal that would allow an estimated 500 more drug offenders incarcerated under the Rockefeller Drug Laws to appeal their sentences and possibly leave prison early. But the measure's fate is uncertain because Gov. George Pataki said he has "some concerns about it." The bill applies to felons convicted of Class A2 crimes, the second-highest level of drug offenses. These offenders were left out of a three-way agreement between Pataki and legislative leaders last December. The agreement did away with life sentences for both the highest-level Class A1 crimes and A2 crimes, but allowed only A1 offenders to retroactively appeal for resentencing under the new guidelines and have the chance to go free before serving all their time. The Senate and Assembly deal allows nonviolent A2 offenders currently in prison and within 36 months of their first parole eligibility dates to appeal their sentences and possibly be resentenced by a judge. The state Department of Corrections estimates about 500 inmates would be affected by this change. The A2 bill passed the Republican-controlled Senate on Thursday afternoon; the Democrat-led Assembly followed suit Friday. The measure will be sent to the governor and he can either sign it, veto it or take no action and allow it to quietly become law. Senate Republicans framed the bill as continued reform of the harsh 1973 Rockefeller Drug Laws, which mandated life sentences for selling or possessing relatively small amounts of narcotics. "I think this is the next logical step," said Sen. John DeFrancisco, an Onondaga County Republican. "No one is going to be let out of jail without a full hearing and without proof that it's the right thing, . and it corrects some of the inflexible sentencing that we've been having for years." Democrats called the measure merely an incremental step that does come close to fulfilling promises made by all sides last year to continue working for more substantive changes to the laws. "This is so minimal, so tiny, compared to what we should be doing in this Legislature to reform the Rockefeller Drug Laws," said Sen. Thomas Duane, D-Manhattan, who voted "no" on the bill, as he did on the December deal, because he felt it didn't go far enough. "We had all year to keep working on it, and this is the end result?" Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry, D-Queens, chair of the Assembly Correction Committee and a longtime drug law reform advocate, agreed the bill "isn't as aggressive as we would like it to be," but said it was the extent of what the Senate was willing to do. "Everything with Rockefeller Drug Law reform is hard," Aubry said. Earlier this year, Assembly Democrats introduced a bill designed to return sentencing discretion to judges and allow low-level, nonviolent drug offenders to be sent to substance abuse treatment rather than prison. This was an effort to help Class B offenders, who make up the majority of drug felons in prison. But the Senate Republicans weren't interested. - --- MAP posted-by: SHeath(DPFFlorida)