GOVERNOR THREATENS VETO FOR TRUTH-IN-SENTENCING BILL

Gov. Frank Keating said Thursday the latest version of a
truth-in-sentencing bill "is squishy on crime," and he'll veto it and
call a special session unless it's toughened or the 1997 law is
delayed a year.

Keating said legislative conferees presented a "clearly unacceptable"
bill to him.

"It is still full of holes. It is squishy on crime and I will not sign
it," he said.

Sen. Cal Hobson, D-Lexington, said Keating's comments were "uninformed
political posturing, nothing else. "

"If he were really serious about resolving this issue in a positive
manner, he would have taken an active role in the negotiation process
instead of jumping in at the last minute with a political ultimatum,"
Hobson said.

Three veteran Republican senators -- Jerry Smith of Tulsa, Howard
Hendrick of Oklahoma City and Ged Wright of Broken Arrow -- "strongly
advocate this bill," Hobson said.

Keating said the bill proposed by conferees failed to address the
central problems in the 1997 truth-in-sentencing law, which is
scheduled to go into effect in about a month.

"We made it clear early in the session that the answer was to increase
sentences for many crimes and move a number of serious crimes from the
community corrections track back to the prison track," Keating said.
"This new bill only nibbles at the edges of those concerns."

Hobson said Keating was presented with a bill that he's asked for
since January.

"He asked for more time for violent offenders. This bill absolutely
does that, up to and including a flat minimum of 25 years -- clock 25
years."

Hobson said Keating had asked for a way to deal with habitual
offenders. He said the conferees have done that, proposing a provision
currently in North Carolina law.

"He asked for a method to have imprisonment a possibility for even
low-level community offenders if they had other characteristics that
made them inappropriate for community," Hobson said. "It is in the
bill."

Keating said the bill permits a thief to steal up to $500 repeatedly
and never go to prison, instead serving one year in the county jail.
Hobson said, "The hang-up this morning was about hot check writers. We
spent the bulk of our time yapping about that."

Prosecutors currently do not send people to prison for hot checks on
the first three or four offenses, preferring to collect the debt, then
put them in jail for a year on subsequent bad checks, he said.
"That is an appropriate, logical punishment if you want to reserve
expensive prison space, at $16,000 per inmate, for violent offenders,"
he said.

Keating said he would prefer that legislators pass a tough bill before
adjournment at 5 p.m. today.

Failing that, he said, they should act promptly to delay
implementation of the 1997 law for at least 12 months, to allow the
1999 Legislature to address its deficiencies.

"If they don't, we'll be here in June until we get it right," Keating
said.

Hobson said, "It is an election year, and I have no doubt in my mind
if the elections weren't looming, including his, they would jump at a
chance to sign this bill."

Checked-by: (trikydik)