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| Pataki Proposes Softening Drug Laws |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 01/29/2001 |
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Gov. George Pataki has proposed softening the state's Rockefeller-era drug laws by sending thousands of offenders to treatment instead of prison. There are better ways of dealing with non-violent drug addicts than giving them long mandatory prison sentences, Pataki said recently. The 1973 laws were enacted as a get-tough approach to the state's burgeoning drug problem. A person found guilty of a single four-ounce sale of a controlled substance can face a minimum prison sentence of 15 years to life - the same penalty as someone convicted of second-degree murder in New York. Pataki proposed cutting the maximum drug penalty to 8 1/3 years to life for non-violent offenders. For more common sentences of three to six years, Pataki suggested letting non-violent convicts do six months of live-in drug treatment. The proposal would apply retroactively to inmates serving under the harshest law. Some of the 500 inmates serving 15 years to life with no violence on their records could get reduced sentences. State Criminal Justice Coordinator Katherine Lapp said the governor's plan would divert nearly 6,000 inmates from prison. It costs about $30,000 a year to incarcerate an inmate in New York. Pataki's 2001-02 state budget also proposes spending $50 million less on the Department of Correctional Services because of a falling prison population. The leader of the Assembly's Democratic majority, Speaker Sheldon Silver, said Pataki's proposal doesn't go far enough. Democrats have favored increasing the weights of controlled substances needed to qualify for various degrees of drug possession counts and improving drug programs for inmates. |
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