GET SMART ON CRIME

On the same day last week, two conflicting things happened -- one on
the national level and one in Tallahassee. Dennis W. Archer, president
of the American Bar Association, announced the results of an ABA study
on the nation's propensity to be tough on crime by imposing mandatory
sentences.

There needs to be change, he said, "Because the old way has cost too
much and done too little to make our communities safer. In short," he
said, "it isn't enough just to be tough on crime, they also need to be
smart on crime."

Then, as if to demonstrate the love for the tough-on-crime mindset,
Gov. Jeb Bush signed a bill would mandate that anyone convicted of
five misdemeanors in a 12-month period will have to spend spend six
months in jail or a residential-treatment facility.

It doesn't take much of a crime to cross the misdemeanor threshold.
Shoplifting is a misdemeanor, as is carrying less than 20 grams of
marijuana, disorderly conduct and gambling.

Racking up five misdemeanors in 12 months is a bigger threshold to
cross. Yet it isn't all that difficult for the homeless, who are often
arrested for the misdemeanor crime of loitering. Critics of the law
say that's exactly the target of it.

The bill was pushed through the Legislature by the Jacksonville
delegation at the urging of Sheriff John Rutherford. Jacksonville
happens to be the site for the 2005 Super Bowl.

"It's basically window washers and homeless people we're talking
about," said Rep. Dan Gelber, DMiami. "Who else is going to get five
misdemeanors a year?"

Rutherford, elected last year, said lots of others: petty dope
pushers, prostitutes and heavy drinkers. A former jail administrator,
Rutherford said he knows of one man who was in jail 27 times and
served 256 days.

Miami-Dade County Judge Steve Leifman was among several judges across
the state who said the law could lead to potential jail
overcrowding.

Bush brushed off the possibility, saying the Office of State Courts
Administrator reported last year that there were just 931 offenders in
jails across the state with five misdemeanor convictions in 12 months.
And because the bill provides for alternative sentencing," it was
unclear how many potential offenders would serve time in jail.

Still, the 931 inmates with five or more convictions wound up in jail
without the mandatory law in in place. There's no indication of how
many others with four misdemeanor convictions were convicted of a
fifth, but were not sentenced to jail because the judge still had
sentencing discretion.

"There is a reason we give judges a gavel, not a rubber stamp," said
the ABA's Archer. Mandatory minimum sentencing laws "too often are
tough on the wrong people. While we all can agree that similar crimes
should generally result in similar sentences," a one-size sentence
fitting all convictions "doesn't make sense. Judges need to have the
discretion to weigh the specifics of the cases before them and
determine an appropriate sentence."

The ABA study began last year when U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony
Kennedy, a Reagan appointee, criticized criminal sentences for being
too long and too rigid. Minimum-mandatory sentences, he said, were
"unwise and unjust," and as a result, "our resources are misspent, our
punishments too severe, our sentences too long."

The ABA's study was also concerned about the misuse of resources. Of
the 2.1 million imprisoned Americans, 95 percent will eventually be
released. Archer said if resources are invested "while they are
incarcerated in helping them prepare to re-enter society -- providing
job training and treatment for substance abuse, for example -- we make
our communities safer by reducing the chance that ex-prisoners will
return to a life of crime.

"Because we don't do enough of this today, about one-third of the
people released from prison commit new crimes and eventually go back."

Archer also wanted it clear that the recommendations from the ABA "are
not your typical criminal-coddling recommendations from out-of-touch
advocacy groups. They are the product of hardheaded, realistic
assessment of the problems in our criminal justice system."

He concluded: "We've spent more than 20 years getting tougher on
crime. Now we need to get smarter."

Having gotten tough again this session, perhaps the Legislature will
get smarter next time.