PRYOR TELLS LAWMAKERS IT'S TIME TO REFORM SENTENCING PROCESS

MONTGOMERY - A habitual purse snatcher or drug user in Alabama gets a
life-without-parole prison sentence while a rapist or murderer serves
only several years behind bars.

Sound unjust? It happens under state sentencing laws and Attorney
General Bill Pryor wants to change that.

Pryor, who has been making that point around the state for months,
took his campaign to the Legislature Wednesday. He told state
lawmakers his top legislative priority is creating a permanent
sentencing commission that would rewrite Alabama's sentencing laws to
provide alternatives and more flexibility.

''We've got to do a smarter job of making sure we're incarcerating
violent and repeat offenders, particularly in crime-prone years, to
best serve the public,'' Pryor testified during legislative budget
hearings.

His push for changes comes as Alabama's prison population is
skyrocketing, prisons are becoming more costly and recidivism rates
show little sign of improvement.

A sentencing commission would ensure that time served is consistent
with time sentenced, that similar crimes draw similar punishment and
that judges have sentencing options particularly for nonviolent offenders.

A main goal of the sentencing reforms is to make sure violent and
repeat offenders serve hard time and first time, nonviolent offenders
get less expensive, alternative punishments with a focus on
rehabilitation.

''There's a difference between being tough on crime but not being
smart,'' Pryor said. ''We need to be tough on crime and smart on crime
. . . We only have finite resources so we have to be smart and tough
at the same time.''

Pryor said it makes better sense, for instance, to send a first-time
drug felon to a drug treatment program and cure the addiction than to
send that person off for a long prison stay.

''We need to focus on recidivism rates and incarcerating those who
truly need to be incarcerated rather than using our scarce prison
resources'' locking up those who pose little risk to society and can
be rehabilitated, he said.

''The sentencing structure has got to change if we want to deal with
this problem.''

Pryor said 20 states and the federal court system have some type of
sentencing oversight commission.

The proposed commission is the top recommendation of an Alabama
Judicial System subcommittee appointed in 1998 by Pryor and Chief
Justice Perry Hooper. Members included judges, prosecutors, law
enforcement officers, victims' rights advocates, defense attorneys and
others in the criminal justice system who studied Alabama's sentencing
laws and prison stays.

The study found, among other things, that:

Most felons rarely serve their full sentences. Most serve only a third
of their actual sentence.

Broad sentencing ranges, such as two to 20 years for a Class B felony,
promote disparity in prison terms for the same crime.

The state's Habitual Offender law calling for mandatory life without
parole sentences for repeat offenders makes no distinction between
violent offenses and nonviolent, property-type offenses such as theft.
Thus, more and more nonviolent offenders are using up jail space that
could otherwise be used for violent offenders.

Miriam Sheehan, executive director of the Alabama Victims of Crime and
Leniency victims organization, said VOCAL can support the creation of
a permanent sentencing commission, but only if victims will have a
voice on the new guidelines.

Sheehan cited two main concerns: that the commission be careful in
defining violent vs. nonviolent offenders, and that no criminal gets
off easy.

''We need to make sure nonviolent offenders don't get a free ticket so
they offend over and over," she said. "It should be meaningful
punishment.''

Pryor also told the budget committee he will continue to work toward
streamlining appeals in death penalty cases. Alabama now has 182
inmates on death row, with 38 added since 1999 began. The average time
on death row in Alabama is 12 years, three months, he said.

Pryor asked for $9.7 million from the General Fund, a 5.4 percent
increase from last year. His total proposed 2000- 2001 budget for the
attorney general's office is $11.7 million.

The increase would be mainly for merit raises for his employees. Pryor
also wants to hire an economist for the consumer division, an attorney
for the public corruption unit and two attorneys for the
constitutional defense division.