GET-TOUGH POLICIES PUT MORE PEOPLE IN PRISON, JAIL

673,000 People Sent To Prison In Clinton's Two Terms, Report Says

WASHINGTON -- More Americans went to prison or jail during the Clinton
administration than during any past administration, the result of get-tough
policies that led to more prisons, more police officers and longer
sentences, according to a report scheduled to be released today by a
criminal justice think tank.

During President Clinton's eight years in office, 673,000 people were sent
to state and federal prisons and jails, compared with 343,000 during
President Bush's single term and 448,000 in President Reagan's two terms,
says a study by the Justice Policy Institute, an arm of the Center on
Juvenile and Criminal Justice.

The center advocates more balance between incarceration and treatment for
criminals.

The incarceration rate at the end of the Clinton administration was 476 per
100,000 Americans vs. 332 per 100,000 at the end of Bush's term and 247 per
100,000 at the end of Reagan's administration, the study said.

Two million people are behind bars and 4.5 million are on probation and
parole, according to the study, which is based on Justice Department
figures and estimates from 1993 to 2000.

More federal inmates were added to prisons under Clinton than under Bush
and Reagan combined.

The study found that the number of prisoners under federal jurisdiction
doubled during the Clinton years and grew more than during the previous 12
years of Republican control of the White House.

Nearly 60 percent of those sentenced to federal prison during the Clinton
administration are serving time for drug offenses, the study said. The
total number of people in federal prison on drug charges -- 63,448 -- is 62
percent more than the number in 1990.

The study attributed the surge in prisoners on Clinton administration
initiatives that provided more money to states for prisons, police officers
and crime-prevention programs.

The 1994 crime bill, which gave $30 billion to states, was a major factor,
said Vincent Schiraldi, president of the Justice Policy Institute.

Other factors included tougher sentencing and the abolition of parole, he said.

Also contributing to the increase, Schiraldi said, were tougher
three-strikes sentencing laws adopted in more than 20 states during 1994
and 1995.

Republicans are thought to have more punitive crime policies than
Democrats, but the opposite was true during the Clinton administration,
Schiraldi said.

``President Clinton stole the show from the `tough on crime' Republicans,''
he said.

Allen Beck, chief of corrections statistics at the Bureau of Justice
Statistics, disputed the notion that Clinton administration crime
initiatives were the prime reason for the burgeoning prison population.

He said many states had already begun tough crime-prevention programs
before Clinton came to office and tougher sentencing guidelines for federal
drug offenders began in the late 1980s.

Moreover, Beck said, people are staying in jail longer because parole
boards are not releasing prisoners.

``It's not that more people are going to prison, rather people in prison
are staying longer,'' he said.

Schiraldi urged President Bush to make good on a campaign promise to
provide $1 billion to states for local drug treatment programs.

During the campaign, Bush said the surge in the number of prisoners in
recent years ``is a necessary and effective role of government --
protecting our communities from predators.'' He advocated using charities
and religious-based groups to help the children of prisoners and providing
money for a pilot prison ministries program.