CLINTON TARGETS INMATE DRUG USE

The president plans to link federal funding to states'reporting of
substance abuse data.

Seeking to cleanse prisons of illegal drugs,the Clinton administration
plans to tell the states that they have to determine and report the extent
of illicit drug use among their inmates before they can receive more
federal money to spend on prisons.

The information that states provide will be used to create a baseline to
measure progress in reducing drugs inside prisons, which in turn will
qualify them for more federal money.

President Clinton is scheduled to sign the directive in the Oval Office
today. A draft copy addressed to Attorney General Janet Reno was provided
by a senior administration official who said it had been circulating in the
White House, the Justice Department and other interested agencies for the
past month or two.

The document reflects a belief within the administration that crimping the
supply of drugs in prisons will cut the demand for them after the convicts
are released. "With more than half the individuals in our criminal-justice
system estimated to have a substance-abuse problem," the draft says,
"promoting coerced abstinence within the criminal-justice system offer us a
unique opportunity to break this cycle of crime and drugs."

The directive builds on legislation Clinton promised in the 1996
presidential campaign and pushed through Congress last year. The law
requires states to draw up comprehensive plans to test and treat prisoners
and parolees as a condition of receiving money for prisons from the
federal government. The states have to present their plans by March and
implement them by September.

The directive would go beyond that in requiring that states report on drug
use by inmates and demonstrate progress toward eliminating it. The
directive further proposes that Reno draft legislation that would let
states spend some of the federal money earmarked for prison construction to
test and treat prisoners and parolees for drugs if the states increased
penalties for smuggling drugs into prison.

"This is about testing and coerced abstinence," Rahm Emanuel, a White House
senior adviser, said in acknowledging details of the draft directive. "We
have to slam shut the revolving door between drugs and crime.

"You have a number of drug users who commit a lion's share of the crimes in
this country in a controlled environment, and that time should be used to
advantage," he said. "Through mandatory testing, you will force a change in
their behavior that will break the link."