CRITICS SLAM BUSH'S SILENCE, TOUGH STANCE ON DRUGS

WASHINGTON GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush doesn't want to reveal
any history he might have with cocaine, but as Texas governor he has not
been reluctant to talk tough about hard drugs and stiffen the penalties for
those who break drug laws.

Elected on a law-and-order platform in 1994, Bush has signed laws that make
it more likely that people convicted of possessing small amounts of cocaine
would go to jail, drug felons won't be paroled, and drug dealers who sell to
children or can be linked to drug-related deaths will receive longer
sentences. "Incarceration is rehabilitation," Bush said during his first
gubernatorial campaign, and some critics in the field of criminal justice
believe the governor has taken his own words to an extreme.

"Gov. Bush has taken a zero-tolerance approach to drugs in the state of
Texas," said Danny Easterling, a Houston lawyer who heads the 400-member
Harris County Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. "He has a 'lock 'em up'
mentality, as opposed to a give-them-treatment mentality, that is very
unfortunate. When you apply that to cocaine possession, it has a lot of
people's blood boiling."

Bush's overall approach to criminals, and particularly to first-time drug
felons, causes Texans like Easterling to question Bush's much touted
"compassionate conservatism."

Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz accuses Bush of "rampant hypocrisy"
for contemplating cutting welfare benefits to poor people who have abused
drugs if, as a presidential candidate, he won't flatly deny that he ever
used hard drugs himself.

Bush has been dogged by the media to respond to unsubstantiated rumors that
he has used cocaine, which is a felony in Texas. Initially, Bush cited his
zone of privacy and refused to answer the question. Two weeks ago, when
asked if he could pass an FBI background check for drugs, the governor
indicated he had been drug-free for at least 25 years.

Each of the governor's eight rivals for the GOP nomination has denied ever
using illegal drugs. Some have suggested that his credibility on law
enforcement issues hinges on giving a direct answer to the drug question.

Instead, Bush's campaign message is that young people should stay away from
illegal drugs, and as governor, Bush has put more resources into preventing
drug use than in treating drug addiction. The candidate also has said that
those who experiment with drugs should learn from their mistakes and be
forgiven, an attitude that seems at odds with some of his punitive policies
back home.

"The governor wants to make sure that when you commit a crime, there is
going to be a punishment, and it will be swift and sure," said Mindy Tucker,
a spokeswoman for the Bush campaign. "It is his responsibility to enforce
the law."

A Texas law that Bush signed in 1997 mandates that judges sentence
first-time felons convicted of possessing a gram or less of cocaine to a
minimum of 180 days and a maximum of two years in a state jail. Under Bush's
predecessor, Gov. Ann Richards, such first-time offenders received automatic
probation with drug counseling.

Tony Fabelo, director of the Texas Criminal Justice Policy Council, said
that in 1998, 4,000 of the felons in state jails were drug offenders, and
about 2,800 of them had been incarcerated for possession of a gram or less
of cocaine or heroin. Still, more than 80 percent of the drug felons who
could have been sent to state jail had received probation instead, Fabelo said.

Easterling said that "a lot of people are going to jail instead of receiving
probation and rehabilitation" for being found guilty of possessing cocaine
in amounts that suggest personal use, not drug dealing. The majority of
those being jailed, he said, are minorities and the poor, who can't afford
private lawyers and don't get into treatment programs before their cases
come to trial. "They are under a lot of pressure to plead guilty and move
on," Easterling said.

Fabelo confirmed that 58 percent of the drug felons in state jails are
black, 17 percent are Hispanic, and 23 percent are white. State jails in
Texas house only nonviolent felons.

The Texas prison population -- as opposed to its state jail population --
has tripled during the Bush administration to 149,000, making Texas second
only to Louisiana in having the highest ratio of inmates, with more than 700
per 100,000 people. A $2 billion prison-building program started by Richards
created so many prison beds that Bush has been able to enhance his
crime-fighter image by backing tougher criminal sentencing and cracking down
on parole.

In 1991, the parole board appointed by Richards granted parole to 79 percent
of the eligible inmates. This year, under a Bush-appointed parole board, the
rate has fallen to an all-time low of 16 percent. The parole rate for drug
offenders in prison is about 20 percent.

Bill Habern, a criminal defense lawyer in Riverside, Texas, who specializes
in parole, says the parole rate proves that Bush is conservative, but not
compassionate.

"There is no justification for such an extreme reduction in parole, or for
the damage ... on those who aren't released," Habern said. "Bush is not
tough on crime, he is dictatorial on crime."

Critics accuse Bush of slashing substance abuse treatment programs in Texas
prisons. But authorities in the state say the 14,000 treatment beds proposed
by the Richards administration in 1991 never materialized because the
corrections department could not demonstrate the need, not because Bush
opposed rehabilitation.

Morgan Reynolds, director of criminal justice studies for the Dallas-based
National Center for Policy Analysis, a conservative think tank, says Bush
faces a personal dilemma with his anti-drug record and the cocaine rumors.

"Bush's message has been, 'Be tough on crime, punishment works, and people
need to take responsibility for their own actions,'" Reynolds said. "I don't
think it works when that man, who wants to be the chief law enforcement
officer of the nation, looks like he is hiding a felony crime. What about
equal justice for all?"