New York Votes to Ease Mandatory Sentences

State lawmakers voted Tuesday to scale back some mandatory sentences under New York’s stringent drug laws, which could send a person to prison for life for possessing a few ounces of heroin or cocaine.

The Assembly approved the measure 96 to 41; the Senate passed it on a 53-6 vote. Gov. George E. Pataki helped negotiate the legislation and said he would sign it into law.

“Now we put in a new law that will rationalize that sentencing [structure] and make the punishment fit the crime,” Pataki said.

The measure would change the maximum sentence of 15 to 25 years to life to a sentence of eight years to 20 years, making offenders eligible for release in less than seven. They currently have to serve a minimum of at least 15 years.

The legislation would also eliminate the maximum term of life for the most serious offenses. A common sentence of three years to life for many offenders would become a determinate sentence of three years, making offenders eligible for release in just more than 2 1/2 years.

Opponents of the drug laws had decried the statute’s maximum life sentences as draconian, though only about 400 of the state’s 62,000 prison inmates were serving the maximum for offenses related to drug possession.

Those inmates would be allowed to seek reductions in their prison time in line with the new sentencing guidelines.

The agreement also would make nonviolent drug offenders eligible sooner for treatment programs and double the amounts, by weight, of heroin and other controlled substances that defendants have to possess to receive the toughest sentences.

Former Gov. Nelson Rockefeller pushed the current statutes through the New York Legislature in 1973 and 1974, at a time when he thought the state’s inner cities were being lost to heroin addiction and judges were balking at imposing stiff sentences on drug offenders.

Two longtime goals of drug law reformers -- giving sentencing discretion to judges and allowing some offenders to avoid prison in favor of treatment -- are not included in the agreement.

Critics of mandatory drug laws say the sentences are unduly long for many low-level offenders and addicts, and disproportionately affect minorities.