TEXAS RE-EXAMINES ITS THROW-AWAY-THE-KEY APPROACH

Bar Association Meeting Looks At State Of Nation's Criminal Justice System

SAN ANTONIO -- For decades, Texas has been nearly single-minded in its
efforts to put criminals behind bars for as long as possible.

But now, with its prisons bulging with more than 150,000 inmates and after
putting more than 300 people to death, the state with the largest criminal
justice system in the country is examining the policies and practices that
got it to this point.

Efforts are under way to reduce the prison population by sending people to
community-based mental health and substance abuse treatment programs and
putting them on parole instead of in state prison.

"Short of violating the Constitution, I'm not sure you can have a system
that is tougher than the one we have in Texas," said state Rep. Ray Allen,
a Republican from the Dallas area. "We have made some pretty strenuous
efforts to add some smarts to that. ... The consensus is, we need to do more."

Allen made his remarks to a commission of judges and lawyers in San Antonio
at the week-long mid-year meeting of the American Bar Association, the
nation's largest lawyers group. The testimony came yesterday at a public
hearing on the state of the nation's criminal justice system.

The commission was established by the association to gather information on
the criminal justice system and make recommendations on how to improve the
system. It was formed after Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy spoke
last year about problems he saw -- a system crowded with minorities, many
sentenced to long prison terms for relatively minor crimes, and then
returned to society with no support system.

Some in the legal community point to the fact that Texas is examining its
criminal justice system as proof that something big is happening around the
country, said commission chairman Stephen Saltzburg, a professor at George
Washington University Law School.

The commission, which has been holding public hearings across the country,
is expected to make recommendations to be put to a vote in the bar
association's policy-making body this summer.

The panel was inspired by a speech Kennedy gave last August to the bar
group in which he said: "Our resources are misspent, our punishments too
severe, our sentences too long."

At least 25 states have implemented sentencing and correctional reforms
such as eliminating mandatory minimum sentencing laws, diverting nonviolent
drug offenders to treatment programs, and increasing "earned-time" credits
- -- essentially time off for good behavior -- available to prisoners,
according to a report issued last fall by Families Against Mandatory Minimums.

"Our society has become aware that there are solutions other than mass
incarceration. We're not talking about no consequences, but the punishment
should fit the crime and the offender," said Laura Sager, executive
director of the group.

The reforms have been inspired in many states by budget problems that have
brought together fiscal conservatives and liberal reformers. As a result of
such alliances, many people hope the issues raised won't be pushed aside by
politicians who often fear being portrayed as soft on crime.

"For the first time, people have hope that the discussions might not just
die on the argument that nobody cares," said Saltzburg.

New Jersey is one of those states taking a closer look at the way it treats
criminals.

In recent months, state Attorney General Peter Harvey has directed his
staff to conduct a study of the sentencing laws with an aim toward reducing
the prison population. The State Parole Board and Department of Corrections
also are looking at ways to cut sentences. And Gov. James E. McGreevey
signed legislation, which had liberal and conservative support, to create a
15-member panel to study the fairness of the state's sentencing laws.

In Texas, a number of recent high-profile cases have done little to improve
the reputation of the criminal justice system.

In July 1999, 46 people -- 39 of them black -- were arrested in Tulia on
drug charges, but authorities found no drugs or money during the arrests.
Two dozen people were arrested in Dallas in 2001 on false drug charges;
white powder that had been found turned out to be mostly billiards chalk
that had been packaged to look like cocaine and then planted by paid
informants.

And last year, a longtime resident of Texas' death row was resentenced to
three life terms after he became a symbol of the problems with capital
punishment because his lawyer slept during his trial.

Some have suggested that the recent wave of reform is partly because of
George W. Bush's 2000 run for president, which brought a great deal of
outside attention to the Texas system.

"We now have to feel a little less comfortable with ourselves, with our
efforts," said state Rep. Harold Dutton, a Democrat from Houston.

Recent years have brought about serious change in Texas.

Last winter, about 500 people converged on the statehouse in Austin to
lobby for criminal justice reforms. In the summer, Republican Gov. Rick
Perry signed a bill into law that mandates drug treatment for first time,
low-level drug offenders.

The state also has introduced parole reforms that make it easier for
nonviolent offenders to get out of prison. And in 2001, the Fair Defense
Act was passed, mandating the state to establish standards for selecting
lawyers to represent people in capital cases.

Still, many say the changes have not gone far enough as the state continues
to put many people into prisons with few programs to provide education,
drug treatment or job skills.

"We're trying to make more sense," testified John Creuzot, a district judge
in Texas, who oversees a drug-court program, which emphasizes treatment
over incarceration. "Where we begin to win the war on crime is not by
locking people up, but by finding out what their underlying problems are."

On Monday, the bar association is expected to take up the issue of gay
marriage. While the group does not intend to endorse same-sex unions, it is
expected to vote on a plan to encourage states to write their own marriage
rules -- without interference from Washington. The mid-year meeting, which
began on Wednesday, wraps up on Tuesday.