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The Ruinous Drug Laws July 18, 2002 By BOB HERBERT If you want to see the true craziness of the Rockefeller drug laws just compare the cases of Andre Neverson, a violent felon currently being hunted for the murder of two women, and Kenia Tatis, a 32-year-old mother of three who is serving a mandatory sentence of 15 years to life in state prison. Ten years ago Mr. Neverson got into a fight with his girlfriend outside a medical school in Brooklyn, where she worked. The woman's uncle came by and saw them fighting. When he tried to intervene, Mr. Neverson became enraged, pulled a gun and shot the uncle five times. The uncle survived. Mr. Neverson served five years in prison for attempted murder and was released. Last week he shot his own sister to death, police said, and then kidnapped and murdered another former girlfriend. He was still on the loose yesterday. Kenia Tatis was arrested a few years ago on a charge of possessing 20 ounces of cocaine. She had never before been in trouble with the law and insisted she was innocent. There were no drugs found in her possession when she was arrested, but she was convicted at a trial in which a woman testified against her in return for a lighter sentence for herself. There is plenty that is wrong with this picture. Andre Neverson, a mortal threat to anyone he encounters, does just five years for shooting a man five times, while Kenia Tatis, a nonviolent narcotics offender with no prior criminal record, does a staggering 15 years to life. How about a dose of sanity? After 29 futile and tragic years, it is time to bring the curtain down on the institutionalized cruelty of the Rockefeller drug laws. There is no way to justify sentencing nonviolent low-level drug offenders to prison terms that are longer than those served by some killers and rapists. Two packages of legislative reforms are floating around, one from Gov. George Pataki and one from the State Assembly. Neither goes far enough. But with more than 19,000 drug offenders jamming the prisons and draining the state's resources, it's important to at least get a start on remedying the worst abuses. The essential problem with the Rockefeller laws is that the punishments are both draconian and mandatory. As the Correctional Association of New York has pointed out, "The penalties apply without regard to the circumstances of the offense or the individual's character or background." Major drug dealers are seldom snared in the vast net of these laws. But tens of thousands of addicts and low-level peddlers - the vast majority of them black or Hispanic - have been sent away for long stretches. Judges do not have the discretion to impose lighter sentences in cases that warrant them, or to refer offenders to drug treatment programs as an alternative to incarceration when that is appropriate. Both of the current reform proposals would make some changes in sentencing procedures, with the Assembly package giving judges substantially more discretion. But neither package would actually repeal the Rockefeller laws. The ethnic differentials in the enforcement of the drug laws are extraordinary. While there is wide use of illegal drugs across the ethnic spectrum, including among whites, 94 percent of the people doing time for drug offenses in the state of New York are black or Hispanic. There is now broad acknowledgment that enactment of such rigid laws by Gov. Nelson Rockefeller and the State Legislature in 1973 was a wrongheaded approach to the twin scourges of crime and drug addiction. One of the original sponsors of the laws, former State Senator John R. Dunne, who served as chairman of the Senate Committee on Crime and Corrections in 1973, said on this page a couple of months ago that he regretted his role in the passage of the Rockefeller laws, which he described as both ineffective and wasteful. "New York," he said, "now sends more African-American and Latino men to prison each year than it graduates from its state colleges and universities." Governor Pataki and the leaders of the Assembly do not appear to be closing in on an agreement that would begin to reform these destructive laws. Another opportunity is slipping away. Next year will mark the 30th anniversary of Nelson Rockefeller's big mistake. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/18/opinion/18HERB.html?ex=1027993275&ei=1&en=b726e41e47223740 HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! 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