T
The420Guy
Guest
With a push from Pataki, this should be the year lawmakers reform draconian drug laws.
Gov. George Pataki has stepped up to the plate, signaling via a comprehensive reform proposal that he may finally be ready to scrap the state's Rockefeller-era drug laws.
If he stays the course, the support of the law-and-order governor could provide the cover that timid legislators need to end the
state's harsh mandatory prison terms for nonviolent drug offenders.
The goal should be to allow judges iscretion to decide sentences
case by case, with drug treatment as one meaningful alternative to jail time.
Mandatory prison terms are a decades-old, knee-jerk reaction to a once-burgeoning drug epidemic. The result has been explosive growth in the state's prisons, driven by huge numbers of nonviolent offenders, consigned to costly cells only to return to addiction and crime when released. The policy has cost too much and returned too
little in crime control.
With his latest proposal, Pataki joins a long list of would-be reformers, which includes state court officials, Assembly Democrats, advocacy groups, much of the public and even some of the lawmakers
who initially enacted the Rockefeller laws.
Pataki would shorten mandatory sentences for the most serious drug offenses and allow appeals courts to shave them even more in some cases. He would eliminate mandatory prison time for low-level, nonviolent felony drug offenders and allow treatment as one
alternative. He would allow even greater sentencing leeway in some circumstances, with the consent of prosecutors. At the same time, Pataki would impose more prison time on repeat violent offenders, Internet drug dealers, offenders with guns and those who involve minors in drug use.
The discretion Pataki would return to trial judges should be broadened, but the plan provides a solid point of departure for the
reform debate. Although money saved on prisons and tapped from federal sources will be available, state officials must ensure there are enough adequately funded treatment programs.
With the crime rate low and the number of drug offenders behind bars now declining in New York, there is a window of opportunity for common-sense sentencing reform. It is an opportunity that shouldn't be squandered.
Newshawk: Sledhead
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Jan 2001
Source: Newsday (NY)
Copyright: 2001 Newsday Inc.
Contact: letters@newsday.com
Address: 235 Pinelawn Rd., Melville NY 11747
Fax: (516)843-2986
Website: https://www.newsday.com/homepage.htm
Forum: https://www.newsday.com/forums/forums.htm
Gov. George Pataki has stepped up to the plate, signaling via a comprehensive reform proposal that he may finally be ready to scrap the state's Rockefeller-era drug laws.
If he stays the course, the support of the law-and-order governor could provide the cover that timid legislators need to end the
state's harsh mandatory prison terms for nonviolent drug offenders.
The goal should be to allow judges iscretion to decide sentences
case by case, with drug treatment as one meaningful alternative to jail time.
Mandatory prison terms are a decades-old, knee-jerk reaction to a once-burgeoning drug epidemic. The result has been explosive growth in the state's prisons, driven by huge numbers of nonviolent offenders, consigned to costly cells only to return to addiction and crime when released. The policy has cost too much and returned too
little in crime control.
With his latest proposal, Pataki joins a long list of would-be reformers, which includes state court officials, Assembly Democrats, advocacy groups, much of the public and even some of the lawmakers
who initially enacted the Rockefeller laws.
Pataki would shorten mandatory sentences for the most serious drug offenses and allow appeals courts to shave them even more in some cases. He would eliminate mandatory prison time for low-level, nonviolent felony drug offenders and allow treatment as one
alternative. He would allow even greater sentencing leeway in some circumstances, with the consent of prosecutors. At the same time, Pataki would impose more prison time on repeat violent offenders, Internet drug dealers, offenders with guns and those who involve minors in drug use.
The discretion Pataki would return to trial judges should be broadened, but the plan provides a solid point of departure for the
reform debate. Although money saved on prisons and tapped from federal sources will be available, state officials must ensure there are enough adequately funded treatment programs.
With the crime rate low and the number of drug offenders behind bars now declining in New York, there is a window of opportunity for common-sense sentencing reform. It is an opportunity that shouldn't be squandered.
Newshawk: Sledhead
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Jan 2001
Source: Newsday (NY)
Copyright: 2001 Newsday Inc.
Contact: letters@newsday.com
Address: 235 Pinelawn Rd., Melville NY 11747
Fax: (516)843-2986
Website: https://www.newsday.com/homepage.htm
Forum: https://www.newsday.com/forums/forums.htm
