WEBB SETS HIS SIGHTS ON PRISON REFORM

Senator Proposes National Panel

Somewhere along the meandering career path that led James Webb to the
U.S. Senate, he found himself in the frigid interior of a Japanese prison.

A journalist at the time, he was working on an article about Ed
Arnett, an American who had spent two years in Fuchu Prison for
possession of marijuana. In a January 1984 Parade magazine piece,
Webb described the harsh conditions imposed on Arnett, who had
frostbite and sometimes labored in solitary confinement making paper bags.

"But, surprisingly, Arnett, home in Omaha, Neb., says he prefers
Japan's legal system to ours," Webb wrote. "Why? 'Because it's fair,' he said."

This spring, Webb (D-Va.) plans to introduce legislation on a
long-standing passion of his: reforming the U.S. prison system. Jails
teem with young black men who later struggle to rejoin society, he
says. Drug addicts and the mentally ill take up cells that would be
better used for violent criminals. And politicians have failed to
address this costly problem for fear of being labeled "soft on crime."

It is a gamble for Webb, a fiery and cerebral Democrat from a
staunchly law-and-order state. Virginia abolished parole in 1995, and
it trails only Texas in the number of people it has executed.
Moreover, as the country struggles with two wars overseas and an
ailing economy, overflowing prisons are the last thing on many
lawmakers' minds.

But Webb has never been one to rely on polls or political indicators
to guide his way. He seems instead to charge ahead on projects that
he has decided are worthy of his time, regardless of how they play --
or even whether they represent the priorities of the state he represents.

State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli II (R-Fairfax), who is running for attorney
general, said the initiative sounds "out of line" with the desires of
people in Virginia but not necessarily surprising for Webb. The
senator, he said, "is more emotion than brain in terms of what leads
his agenda."

Some say Webb's go-it-alone approach could come back to haunt him.

"He clearly has limited interest in the political art, you might say,
of reelection," said Robert D. Holsworth, a political science
professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Webb's supporters say his independent streak will be rewarded. They
note that his early opposition to the Iraq war helped carry him to
victory over incumbent Republican George Allen in 2006. Two years
after taking office, they point out, he took the unusual step as a
freshman senator of authoring major legislation: a new GI Bill to
expand education benefits to veterans of recent wars.

They say there is no better messenger on the unlikely issue of
criminal justice reform.

"It's perceived as a great political sin to represent any position
besides 'lock 'em up and throw the key away,' " said state Sen. J.
Chapman Petersen (D-Fairfax). "With Jim's personality, he's never
going to strike somebody as being soft on crime or any other issue.
For that reason, he might be better able to lead this cause. He's a
pretty tough guy."

Webb is a decorated Marine who served as Navy secretary under
President Ronald Reagan. He has also been a journalist, a novelist
and a Hollywood screenwriter. In an interview last week, he said his
experience in the military, a culture that is "disciplined but fair,"
led to his interest in the prison system.

However, he believes it is his experience as a writer that will allow
him to articulate a new approach.

"I enjoy grabbing hold of really complex issues and boiling them down
in a way that they can be understood by everyone," he said. "I think
you can be a law-and-order leader and still understand that the
criminal justice system as we understand it today is broken, unfair,
locking up the wrong people in many cases and not locking up the
right person in many cases."

In speeches and in a book that devotes a chapter to prison issues,
Webb describes a U.S. prison system that is deeply flawed in how it
targets, punishes and releases those identified as criminals.

With 2.3 million people behind bars, the United States has imprisoned
a higher percentage of its population than any other nation,
according to the Pew Center on the States and other groups. Although
the United States has only 5 percent of the world's population, it
has 25 percent of its prison population, Webb says.

A disproportionate number of those who are incarcerated are black,
Webb notes. African Americans make up 13 percent of the population,
but they comprise more than half of all prison inmates, compared with
one-third two decades ago. Today, Webb says, a black man without a
high school diploma has a 60 percent chance of going to prison.

Webb aims much of his criticism at enforcement efforts that he says
too often target low-level drug offenders and parole violators,
rather than those who perpetrate violence, such as gang members. He
also blames policies that strip felons of citizenship rights and can
hinder their chances of finding a job after release. He says he
believes society can be made safer while making the system more
humane and cost-effective.

That point of view has gained steam with members of both parties.
Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) recently proposed earlier release
for some prisoners convicted of nonviolent crimes as a cost-cutting measure.

But the movement is alarming to drug enforcement advocates. Tom
Riley, spokesman for the Office of National Drug Policy Initiatives,
said it has become an "urban myth" that the nation imprisons vast
numbers of low-level drug offenders.

People are often surprised to learn that less than one-half of 1
percent of all inmates are in for marijuana possession, he said. And
those offenders were caught holding, on average, 100 pounds.

"That's a pretty different picture than I think most people have,"
Riley said. "It's true, we have way too many people in prison. But
it's not because the laws are unjust, but because there are too many
people who are causing havoc and misery in the community."

J. Scott Leake, a GOP strategist in Virginia, said there is a reason
Virginians enjoy low crime rates. "[It's] because of the policies
we've already put in place," he said. "If Senator Webb were to try to
roll some of that back, I think he would have a fight on his hands."

Webb isn't known to shy from a fight. He said this spring that he'll
introduce legislation that creates a national panel to recommend ways
to overhaul the criminal justice system.

In his article about the Japanese prisons, Webb described inmates
living in unheated cells and being prohibited from possessing writing
materials. Arnett's head was shaved every two weeks, and he was
forbidden to look out the window.

Still, Webb said, the United States could learn from the Japanese
system. In his book, "A Time to Fight," he wrote that the Japanese
focused less on retribution. Sentences were short, and inmates often
left prison with marketable job skills. Ironically, he said, the
system was modeled on philosophies pioneered by Americans, who he
says have since lost their way on the matter.

Webb believes he can guide the nation back. "Contrary to so much of
today's political rhetoric," he wrote, "to do so would be an act not
of weakness but of strength."