CANDIDATES OUTLINE TOUGH CRIME STANDS

There's no shortage of straight talk from the major-party candidates for
Iowa governor on what they would do about the state's crime problem.

Democrat Tom Vilsack of Mount Pleasant and Republican Jim Ross Lightfoot of
Shenandoah would banish methamphetamine dealers to the hottest corner of
hell if they could.

But ask them how they'd balance the costs of their expensive, get-tough
crime programs against skyrocketing prison costs, and their precision fades.

Iowans this year are spending $153 million to operate their prisons. That's
59 percent more than they spent four years ago.

Experts last month told the Iowa Board of Corrections that, under current
sentencing laws, Iowa's inmate population will nearly double in 10 years -
to 14,586 from the current 7,425.

Unless sentencing policies are revised or other changes made, Corrections
Director W.L. "Kip" Kautzky told the board, "you can get two, three, four,
five (new prisons) real quick."

Lightfoot has expressed a willingness to explore cheaper alternatives to
prisons for some convicts. He said he wants to study who exactly is taking
up the expensive prison space.

At the same time, Lightfoot said, "we must make penalties so severe that no
drug dealer would ever step foot in Iowa."

So, as governor, will he build new prisons? "I don't know," he said. "Let's
wait and see how many hard, high-security beds we need and go from there."

Vilsack said more prison-building is "not a long-term solution."

But his answer to curbing the projected growth in inmate population could
take decades to have an effect. He says the key to dealing with the
projected growth is smaller class sizes in the schools and

more and better programs to divert youths from committing crimes.

In an interview last spring, Vilsack addressed the difficulty any politician
faces in advocating cheaper alternatives to prison, such as supervision of
criminals in community halfway houses or in home detention - sanctions that
Vilsack said are underused.

"We don't want to give anyone the advantage of saying we're soft on crime,"
said Vilsack. "It's much harder to explain to ordinary folks the benefits of
community-based corrections."

Here's what the candidates are saying about other crime issues facing
Iowans:

* Methamphetamine. Vilsack favors a life prison sentence for anyone
convicted of selling methamphetamine to a minor.

He's proposed spending $4 million annually for improved law enforcement and
rehabilitation of addicts. The sum includes money for a 15-member "strike
force" to bust meth labs, and to prosecute manufacturers and dealers.

Vilsack would spend $18 million on programs to divert young people from
crime. Specifically, he'd assign a juvenile court officer to every middle
school in Iowa to work with delinquent and disruptive students. He'd also
finance youth programs at schools during high-crime hours of 4 p.m. to 8
p.m.

Lightfoot, meanwhile, proposes a four-pronged approach to the meth problem:
prevention, interdiction, enforcement and treatment.

His plan includes the appointment of a law enforcement officer in every
county to coordinate what he calls "a war on meth." Teams of volunteers
would work to educate their communities on the telltale signs of meth
production.

Lightfoot also has called for creation of a meth "strike force" and the
hiring of criminalists at the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation to
expedite drug analysis.

Lightfoot would seek harsher penalties for manufacturers and dealers of
meth, and he would assess the treatment opportunities now available to meth
addicts. He'd then commit an unspecified sum to implement the most effective
treatment options.

At a news conference Wednesday with Republican legislative leaders, he
outlined a $1.8 million program to hire more agents to "seek and destroy" me
th labs, more prosecutors to handle the cases, better equipment to make the
busts and more dogs trained to identify illegal substances.

For the most part, Lightfoot and the Republican lawmakers avoided proposals
for increasing penalties, which lawmakers say are already very stiff.

* Crime victims. Lightfoot has proposed passage of an amendment to the state
constitution to guarantee that crime victims be treated with "fairness,
respect, privacy and dignity."

In March 1997, Vilsack was part of a unanimous vote in the Iowa Senate
approving such an amendment. He says he continues to support it. The
amendment never came up for a House vote.

* Death penalty. Lightfoot supports reinstatement of capital punishment in
Iowa. Vilsack opposes it.

* Gun ownership. The 1998 Iowa Legislature rejected a proposed
"right-to-carry" bill, which would eliminate the broad discretion that
county sheriffs now have to issue or deny permits to carry handguns.

Some critics say current law gives sheriffs too much power and interferes
with Iowans' constitutional rights to possess firearms.

Lightfoot said he believes problems are limited to a few Iowa sheriffs who
have arbitrarily denied permits. He said he's reserving judgment on the
proposed legislation. Vilsack has said he sees no reason to change the law.

Checked-by: Rolf Ernst