Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 28, 1994 TAG: 9406300006
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By SAM BRUNELLI and TANYA METAKSA
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A fitting starting point for each of these states would be a study of their recent history in fighting crime. In that history is recorded both the reasons for our present crisis and the seeds of our redemption. And the history is virtually identical in each state.
Statistics are one way to tell the story. In Arkansas in 1960, there were 195 criminals in prison for every 1,000 crimes reported to the police. In Louisiana there were 112, and in Virginia 177. Then came the '60s.
Beginning in the decade of the 1960s, American criminal-justice policy was reshaped by the idea that social conditions were the root causes of crime. We were told by so-called experts that we could reduce crime by eliminating poverty, poor education, unemployment, bad housing and the rest. And when the concept of personal accountability was abandoned, punishment lost its moral foundation. As a consequence, our government, firmly in the grip of this idea, began sending fewer and fewer people to prison.
By 1980, the imprisonment rate in Arkansas had fallen to 32 criminals in prison for every 1,000 crimes; in Louisiana and Virginia to 33. The results of this punishment plunge were devastating. During the same period, crime rates in Arkansas rose an astonishing 557 percent, in Louisiana 430 percent, and in Virginia 461 percent. Today, these three states have done little to recover from this unilateral retreat in the war on crime. While the '80s saw some increases in each state's imprisonment rate, none has regained even half their 1960 imprisonment rate. Arkansas is at one-third of its 1960 level.
These numbers reveal an utter abandonment of victims and law-abiding citizens by our political leadership. That leadership became so taken by the "blame society, don't blame the criminal" crowd that they continued to cling to it even as the consequences became ever more terrifying.
The reality of those consequences lies beyond the numbers, numbing as they are. The reality is seen in the faces of the crime victims whose lives have been shattered by repeat violent offenders who should have been behind bars. It is seen in the faces of parents who no longer feel safe when their children go to school or play.
It is seen in the faces of police officers who daily risk their lives in a street war waged against those they have caught, only to see released again and again. Weak leaders and weak laws caused the foundation of our criminal-justice system to suffer this collapse.
In each of these three states, sentencing laws are a fraud on the public. When a criminal stands in a courtroom in Little Rock, Baton Rouge or Richmond and a judge hands down a sentence, the actual time the convicted criminal will serve bears little or no relationship to the sentence given. In fact, for most crimes it is less than one-third, even for those criminals sent to prison.
In each of these states, even in those few cases where the legislature has enacted mandatory penalties, the law allows plea bargains around them and they are routinely avoided. Juvenile justice laws allow dangerous and hardened juvenile offenders to regularly escape punishments. In none of these states do victims have any constitutional rights to protect them as their cases go through the courts.
Despite the record of abject failure of the alternatives-to-incarceration and treatment philosophy, there remains a powerful anti-punishment lobby in this country that continues to push for policies that put every American in harm's way. They argue that prisons don't control crime. The evidence shows unambiguously that they are wrong.
During the 1980's the 10 states with increases in their imprisonment rates experienced a decline in their crime rates of more than 20 percent; the 10 states with decreases, or the smallest increases, in their imprisonment rates averaged almost a 9 percent increase in their crime rates. Arkansas, Louisiana and Virginia were all in the bottom 15 states with the smallest increases.
The message to these legislators is clear. Weak laws cost lives and sow the seeds of disorder; strong laws and tough enforcement save lives and preserve free communities. As these legislators prepare for their special sessions, they must prepare an equally strong message to the lawless:
No more pretrial release for clearly dangerous defendants.
No more probation or "community punishment" for violent and repeat criminals.
No more bargains that allow violent criminals to avoid any prison time.
No more fraud in criminal sentencing laws - truth-in-sentencing, instead.
No more denial of rights to crime victims; guaranteed, enforceable constitutional rights instead.
No more revolving doors for violent, chronic juvenile offenders.
No more country-club prisons that allow criminals better living conditions than those affordable by the law-abiding poor in this country.
Our government's most sacred duty to its people is to protect their lives, liberties and property; to preserve the constitutional promise of justice and domestic tranquility. The only serious obstacle to achieving this is the tendency of some politicians to shy away from substantive reforms in favor of symbolic ones.
New recreational programs, arts and crafts training, midnight basketball and similar social programs masquerade as crime-prevention efforts but are little more than criminal justice "pork." Even worse, many who eschew tough-on-crime programs in favor of such "prevention" would compound their unilateral surrender to crime by denying to law-abiding citizens the means to defend themselves.
Arkansas, Louisiana and Virginia have the opportunity to chart a new course and begin to rebuild the infrastructure of American order. If the opportunity is squandered, the people's rage will surely be harsh and unforgiving.
Sam Brunelli is executive director of the American Legislative Exchange Council, the nation's largest private, bipartisan association of state legislators. Tanya Metaksa is executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action.
by CNB