RECALLING FOLKS CLINTON DIDN'T PARDON

HERE'S a not-so-trivial trivia question for you: Under which president did
the most Americans go to prison for serious crimes: Ronald Reagan, Bill
Clinton or the first George Bush?

Here's a hint: He likes to give out lots of pardons.

Yes, a study released last week by the Washington-based Justice Policy
Institute found that Bill "You Beg My Pardon" Clinton wins this dubious
distinction.

Some 673,000 inmates were added to state and federal prisons and jails under
Clinton's two terms, the institute found, compared with 343,000 during
Bush's term and 448,000 during Reagan's two terms. Love him or hate him, you
can't call Clinton soft on crime.

Clinton has not boasted about this occurrence as much as he has bragged
about the economic boom. I guess he's had other things on his mind.

Of course, in fairness to Clinton, Bush did exceptionally well in this
dubious contest for a fellow who served only one term. According to my
calculations, an average of 85,750 went to jail per year under Bush,
compared with 84,125 under Clinton and 56,000 under Reagan.

Bush's per-year lead was appropriate considering the big deal he made during
his 1988 campaign of how much tougher on crime he would be than
Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis would.

Neutralizing the crime issue was crucial for Arkansas Gov. Clinton in 1992,
when he made no secret of his support for the death penalty and his
willingness to use it.

So, no, I was not shocked to see Clinton presided over record jailings. He
knows how to play hardball politics on the crime issue, among many others.

The only question I had while reading the latest report was this: Do all of
these inmates who now make our prisons bulge really belong in prison?

For an answer, I called Justice Policy Institute President Vincent
Schiraldi. "It's hard to say," he said, "But the numbers of people in prison
for nonviolent offenses, particularly drug crimes, are a good place to start
looking."

Indeed, federal statistics show that more than half of the nation's
prisoners are serving time for nonviolent offenses. For federal prison
alone, some 62 percent are listed as having a nonviolent drug crime as the
worst count in their conviction.

And a lot of those nonviolent drug offenders are not big-time dealers.
They're small-time addicts who should be treated as patients, not prison
inmates.

Take, for example, the sad decline and fall of Willie Aikens.

Willie Mays Aikens was a rising star for the Kansas City Royals. During the
1980 World Series, he became the first player ever to have two multiple
home-run games in the same World Series.

But cocaine ended his career in the 1980s, and, in 1994, he was arrested for
selling crack to a federal undercover agent in a highly publicized case that
strikes many as entrapment.

In a case strikingly similar to the bust of former Washington, D.C., Mayor
Marion Barry, but without the videotape, Aikens was lured into selling the
drug by a female agent who Aikens unsuccessfully asked out.

According to news coverage of the trial, she encouraged Aikens to cook
powder cocaine, turning it into crack.

That's important because, under federal sentencing guidelines, one gram of
crack is punished as if it were the same as 100 grams of powder cocaine.

Had Aikens been sentenced for selling powder cocaine, he mostly likely would
be free by now. For selling crack, he was sentenced to more than 20 years in
prison, no parole. With time off for good behavior, he could be released
after serving 17 years.

As Clinton was leaving office he said in a (Feb. 19, Outlook) op-ed piece
that the nation should "immediately reduce the disparity between crack and
powder-cocaine sentences" and re-examine its federal sentencing policies,
"particularly mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent offenders."

Sports commentator Frank Deford of National Public Radio says Aikens hoped
to receive a commutation from Clinton. His hopes were not answered. Judging
from the unfolding controversies over those whom Clinton did pardon, maybe
Aikens just didn't know the right people.

President Bush has expressed an interest in ending mandatory sentencing and
ending the disparity between crack and powder cocaine. He also wants to
spend more money on drug treatment, including faith-based programs, as an
alternative to prison for the addicted.

I hope he follows through. Bush can't do much about the folks Clinton has
pardoned. But he can still do a lot for those Clinton left behind.