Democratic lawmakers and the governor are pushing changes in New York drug laws that would send more nonviolent drug offenders to probation and addiction treatment.

The Assembly scheduled a vote Wednesday on drug sentencing legislation that includes Speaker Sheldon Silver among dozens of co-sponsors. It would eliminate minimum required prison terms for lesser felonies, establish at least one drug court in every county and give judges more latitude to impose alternative sentences.

“For too long, this state has considered drug policy almost solely a criminal matter and not as the public health crisis that it is and has been,” Silver said at a drug treatment clinic in Albany last week. “Now it is up to the leaders of this state to do the smart thing, the humane thing, and break New York’s addiction to mandatory prison sentences for nonviolent offenders.”

The Senate’s Democratic majority will review that measure later Wednesday along with a similar proposal from Gov. David Paterson, said Austin Shafran, spokesman for Majority Leader Malcolm Smith. “We will do a side-by-side comparison on the Assembly and governor’s bills, determine our position and then build a consensus among the conference,” he said.

Sen. Ruth Hassell-Thompson, a Bronx Democrat who chairs the Senate Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Committee, said there were provisions she liked in both measures. The governor, who advocated reforming the remaining so-called Rockefeller-era drug laws in his State of the State address, floated his draft legislative proposal among Democratic lawmakers Monday evening.

Its central provision would give judges discretion to divert nonviolent Class B and lesser felons to alternative programs, providing a basis for negotiations. An administration official said those negotiations were going very well.

“The question isn’t whether there will be reform, but what kind of reform,” said Gabriel Sayegh of the Drug Policy Alliance. The concern of the alliance is that Paterson and the Senate will take a more centrist position than the Assembly, endorsing only limited revisions.

The Assembly bill would give judges discretion to sentence nonviolent Class B and lower felony first-time and repeat offenders to local jail, probation or a combination. Some could be sent to six-month military-style shock camp or the prison-run drug-treatment facility. Judges could approve prejudgment diversion drug-abuse programs and dismiss charges. Under current law, treatment programs can be ordered as a condition of probation.

There are about 12,000 prisoners in New York on drug convictions, 5,000 of them for personal possession only, Sayegh said. The Assembly measure would affect up to 6,000 prisoners who each cost the state about $45,000 a year, he said.

In 1973, Gov. Nelson Rockefeller engineered passage of drug laws that included 15 years to life in prison for a first conviction for selling one ounce or possessing two ounces of an illegal drug. Judges lost the ability to impose non-prison sentences for second felony offenders.

A special state Commission on Sentencing Reform noted that reforms in 2004 eliminated some of the harsher elements of the drug laws. Prosecutors and police have opposed further revisions, saying the tough laws have helped reduce crime and helped them prosecute gang members.

Source: AP