PRISONS NEEDLESSLY OVERPOPULATED WITH DRUG OFFENDERS

In the midst of the soaring rhetoric of last week's Democratic
Convention, more than one speaker quoted Abraham Lincoln's first
inaugural address, invoking "the better angels of our nature."

Well, there is an especially appropriate task awaiting those heavenly
creatures: a long-overdue reform of our disastrous "war on drugs." We
should begin by recognizing its costly and inhumane dimensions.

Much of the nation, in one way or another, is victimized by this
failure, including, most notably, the innocents, whose exposure to
drugs is greater than ever.

This is despite the fact that more than 500,000 people are housed in
federal and state prisons and local jails on drug offenses. Clearly,
no punishment could be too severe for that portion of them who were
kingpins of the drug trade and who ruined so many lives. But, by far,
the majority of these prisoners are guilty of only minor offenses,
such as possessing small amounts of marijuana. That includes people
who used it only for medicinal purposes. The cost to maintain this
great horde of prisoners is more than $10 billion annually.

And that's just part of the cost of this war on drugs: The federal,
state and local drug-control budgets last year added up to almost $40
billion.

These figures were amassed by the Drug Policy Alliance, one of the
foremost national organizations seeking to bring reason to the war on
drugs and reduce substantially those caught in the terrible web of
addiction.

There are awful tales of tragedy and shocking injustice hidden in
those figures -- the product of an almost mindlessly draconian system
called "mandatory sentencing" in which even small offenses can draw
years in prison.

Thousands of women, many of them mothers of young children, are
included among those minor offenders. Those children left without
motherly care are the most innocent victims of the drug war and the
reason some call it a "war on families" as well as on drugs.

Women are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. prison population,
with almost 80 percent of them incarcerated for drug offenses.

The deep perversity of the system lies in the fact that women with the
least culpability often get the harshest sentences.

Unlike the guilty drug dealer, they often have no information to trade
for a better deal from prosecutors and might end up with a harsher
sentence than the dealer gets.

Then there are women such as Kimba Smith, in California, who probably
knew a few things but was so terrified of her abusive boyfriend that
she refused to testify against him.

(Those who agree to testify, by the way, frequently are killed before
they have a chance to do so.)

Smith paid for her terrified silence with a 24-year sentence.

Nonviolent first offenders, male and female, caught with only small
amounts of a controlled substance frequently are given prison
sentences of five to 10 years or more.

As a result, the number of nonviolent offenders in the nation's
prisons is filling them to overflowing, literally.

The resulting overcrowding is forcing violent felons onto the streets
with early releases.

The Drug Policy Alliance also points out other important areas of
injustice in the present enforcement system.

For instance, people of color -- blacks and Hispanics -- are far more
likely to be jailed for drug offenses than others.

And college students caught in possession of very small amounts of
illegal substances are denied student loans and even food stamps.

The alliance and other organizations are working to reform and reframe
the war on drugs. And they are finding many judges on their side, who
are rebelling against this cruel system.

We can expect no federal action during the congressional hiatus in
activity ahead of the November elections, but it would be of
considerable help if, across the country, campaigning politicians put
this high on their promises of legislative action, much sooner than
later.

Walter Cronkite's column is distributed by King Features Syndicate.