REJECTED INMATE: CLINTON PARDONS UNFAIR

President Bush's proposal to reduce taxes has been criticized as unfair by
liberal Democrats who think the bulk of the tax breaks will go to the rich.
Those same Democrats have not raised the fairness issue in the same way
when it comes to the last-minute pardons and commutations by former
President Clinton.

How do people in prison feel about the fairness issue? Should we care?

Dale Hill writes from the federal prison facility in Goldsboro, N.C. Hill
says, and his attorney confirms, that he is serving a 14-year sentence for
a low-level, nonviolent drug offense. It was his first offense, but in a
tough-on-crime environment, he is paying a big price. Unlike many inmates,
Hill admits his guilt.

Last year, Hill applied for a presidential commutation. He didn't get it.
Hill claims to be rehabilitated and a danger to no one. He says family,
clergy, high school teachers and friends endorsed his commutation request.
His attorney tells me Hill exhibits one of the most remarkable turnarounds
of any inmate he's seen.

In his letter to me, Hill raises some good points about those who received
pardons and commutations from Bill Clinton: Patty Hearst? I don't think her
past was a burden. Mr. Deutch? The ex-CIA director wasn't even indicted
yet. Marc Rich? Do you think the fact that Mr. Clinton's campaign fund was
an issue had any effect on his decision? How about Clinton's brother,
Roger? I can't see that he would have any trouble getting a job.

If at least part of the prison experience is supposed to change people's
lives for the better, what kind of message do the Clinton pardons send to
inmates who are serious about changing theirs? The message Hill received is
this: You would think that out of 175 pardons and commutations, more than
36 (his count) would have been people who have used the system to turn
their lives around.

What are the men and women who worked so very hard to change their lives
supposed to tell their children when they ask why Mr. Clinton's brother and
the wealthy benefited from his power, but their Dad or Mom didn't?

Hill's question goes beyond fairness about pardons. The entire
criminal-justice system has needed revamping for decades, but politicians
know they will get little political benefit from reforming the system.
Voters respond favorably to "lock 'em up and throw away the key."

The incarceration rate has more than tripled since 1980, according to the
Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics. At the end of 1999, state and federal
prisons housed 1,284,894 inmates. There were 687,973 others incarcerated in
local jails. Drug offenders serving time amounted to only 9.3 percent of
the prison population in 1983, but this number had jumped to 22 percent by
1996. Nineteen percent of those in state prisons are there for drug
offenses, according to BJS.

As more people go to prison for even low-level drug offenses, public
attitudes are shifting. According to a Gallup Poll in 1989, 38 percent of
the public believed drugs to be our most-serious problem. By 1999, Gallup
found only 5 percent of the public felt that way.

Dale Hill has two boys, ages 14 and 7. He says his wife divorced him, but
he wants to be a father to his children. His release date is November 2005,
but he is ineligible for parole until he has served 12 years and two months
of his sentence. That's because of what Hill says are unfair
mandatory-sentencing guidelines. Such guidelines do not consider
rehabilitation but serve only as punishment long after a lesson has been
learned and the threats to society diminished. First offenders can be
turned into hardened criminals who are greater threats to society when they
come out than when they went in. People in prison are uniquely attuned to
fairness.

The Clinton pardons have become an issue behind prison walls. I can't
imagine any inmate thinking that all of those who received breaks from Bill
Clinton deserved them.

Dale Hill believes he deserved what he didn't get. That's why he tells me
he's starting the process over again and petitioning President Bush, hoping
he understands the difference between fairness and a payoff.