DEA SEES BIG JUMP IN ARRESTS

WASHINGTON -- When Asa Hutchinson is formally sworn in today as head of the
Drug Enforcement Administration, he will oversee an enforcement effort that
arrests an ever-increasing number of people and puts them in prison for
ever-longer periods.

A Justice Department study released Sunday shows that prison time for drug
offenders has more than doubled since 1986. Despite the prospect of more
prison time, drug-related arrests have gone up at nearly the same rate.

Between 1986 and 1999, the average prison term served by drug offenders
rose from 30 months to 66 months. The number of drug defendants charged in
federal court during that time increased from 15,762 to 29,306.

Some argue that the increasing number of defendants shows that there are
more effective ways to deal with the drug problem than harsher prison
sentences.

"This report confirms that deterrence is a nice concept, but it's not
realistic," said Julie Stewart, president of Families Against Mandatory
Minimums, an advocacy group that seeks to eliminate mandatory drug
sentences. "I'm speaking from my own experience. There are hundreds,
literally thousands of pretty low-level, possibly midlevel [drug dealers],
who are not familiar with sentencing laws. They just don't think they are
going to be caught."

Stewart said she formed the group after her brother was sentenced to five
years in prison for growing 350 marijuana plants. She said the judge in the
case believed a lesser sentence was more appropriate. She said there should
be repercussions for breaking the law, but it should be left for a judge to
determine the fairness of a sentence -- not politicians.

Others note that an increasing prison population is one of the reasons the
nation's crime rate dropped throughout much of the past decade. The number
of people in federal prisons for drug-related offenses increased from about
15,000 in 1986 to more than 68,000 in 1999.

"In general, stiffer prison sentences are one of the most important
ingredients in crime reduction," said Eli Lehrer, a visiting fellow who
researches policing and corrections issues for the Heritage Foundation, a
conservative think tank.

Lehrer said it is a myth that a large number of people who go to federal
prison for drug crimes are "nonviolent possessors."

"The people who go to jail, on the whole, are really bad," Lehrer said.

The Justice Department's study is not intended to shape future policy so
much as it is intended to show lawmakers the consequences of their policy
decisions of the past two decades, said John Scalia, the statistician who
gathered the numbers.

During the past two decades, lawmakers did away with many of the options
that federal judges had in sentencing. In 1986, for example, Congress
established minimum sentences for defendants convicted of drug trafficking.
Two years later, it did the same for simple possession of five or more
grams of crack cocaine. Congress also abolished parole and limited the
amount of good-conduct time that an inmate could accrue. As a result, all
federal offenders sentenced to prison must serve at least 87 percent of
their sentence.

The decisions are costly, because prisons are expensive, but there would
also be plenty of costs associated with leaving some drug offenders on the
street, experts say.

"Any cop will tell you that drugs drive crime," Lehrer said.

The study revealed numerous trends from the drug war. They include: *
Almost half (46 percent) of those charged in 1999 with a drug offense were
Hispanic. Twenty-eight percent were black, 25 percent white.

Those ratios are a reflection of where the drug war is being fought --
primarily in districts that border Mexico. The U.S. attorneys in the
Western District of Texas and the Southern District of California alone
referred for prosecution nearly one-seventh of the federal drug cases in
1999 (about 5,400 cases). Indeed, almost a quarter of the defendants
charged with drug crimes were not United States citizens. * Marijuana is
the drug that got the most suspects in trouble. Thirty-one percent of the
drug suspects investigated were referred for prosecution because of
marijuana, 26 percent with cocaine powder, 15 percent with crack cocaine
and 7 percent with methamphetamine. * Nearly 40 percent of the people
charged with a drug offense had lived in the community in which they were
arrested for less than a year. * Almost half of those charged with drug
offenses had prior convictions. Black defendants were the most likely to
have a criminal history, 70 percent, while 60 percent of whites had a
criminal history, and 35 percent of Hispanics had previous convictions.

Hutchinson has already begun his job at the DEA, but a formal swearing-in
ceremony takes place at 2 p.m. today, with Judge Morris Arnold of the 8th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals presiding. The ceremony will be broadcast to
Westark Community College in Fort Smith via closed-circuit television for
the benefit of family and friends who could not get to Washington.