THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 26, 1996 TAG: 9602220018
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
``It's easy to talk tough on crime, but you get to the point where you simply can no longer afford it, not to mention the unjustness of it and the disparate impact it has on minority communities. Locking people up and throwing the key away hasn't made people feel safer and more secure. It's just clogging the courts, filling up the prisons and bankrupting us. I want to try something different.''
``Something different,'' to Terence Hallinan, San Francisco's new district attorney, does not mean going soft on ``real crime.'' He will, he says, aggressively prosecute murderers, armed robbers, rapists and major narcotics traffickers and dealers who sell drugs to minors.
``Something different'' does mean entrusting minor drug offenders to mentors not jailers, ignoring California's three-strikes-and-you're-out law in the case of nonviolent repeaters and involving gang members in community activities.
William Claiborne writes in The Washington Post that Hallinan ``favors rehabilitation over revenge (and) is promising to fend off the lock-'em-up mentality so popular elsewhere.''
Most San Franciscans seem to support the Hallinan approach. One who does not is conservative state Sen. Quintin L. Kopp. ``This is and has been for years a left-wing city,'' he said. ``But if you want a forecast, my forecast is a gloomy one. The crime statistics will eventually prove him wrong.''
In fact, if Hallinan preserves the distinction he makes on types of crime, the statistics more likely will prove him right. Granted, there are questions. Will the city invest enough to assure adequate supervision and guidance for those given alternative punishments and/or placed in rehabilitation programs? Can San Francisco offer offenders not only counseling, monitoring and, for drug addicts, treatment but also training for jobs? And will the jobs be there? Will there be money for positive programs for youths?
Unfortunately, to much of America anything out of California - San Francisco especially - is suspect. And this nation is so fed up with criminals that it requires more political courage than most public officials possess to espouse effective crime-fighting measures.
But just sentencing more people to longer terms packs prisons and demands ever more tax money without addressing recidivism or crime's roots, without stemming the violence that haunts us.
If Hallinan fails, many will join Senator Kopp in an I-told-you-so chorus. But if Hallinan succeeds, will others be willing to follow his lead? by CNB