REPORT CALLS FOR END OF MANDATORY SENTENCING

Findings of Influential Lawyers Association Call Terms Unfair

WASHINGTON - Many get-tough approaches to crime don't work and some, such
as mandatory minimum sentences for small-time drug offenders, are unfair
and should be abolished, a report from the American Bar Association said
Wednesday.

Laws requiring mandatory minimum prison terms leave little room to consider
differences among crimes and criminals, an ABA commission found in its
study of problems in the criminal justice system. More people are behind
bars for longer terms, but it is unclear whether the country is safer as a
result, the ABA said.

The report and recommendations for changes in sentencing, prison
conditions, and programs for released prisoners follow criticism of the
criminal justice system last year from Supreme Court Justice Anthony M.
Kennedy.

Justice Kennedy asked the nation's largest lawyers' group to look at what
he called unfair and even immoral practices throughout the criminal justice
system, and he appeared alongside the group's president Wednesday to accept
the first copy of the resulting study.

"The political phrase 'tough on crime' should not lead us into moral
blindness," Justice Kennedy said.

Citing his role as a judge, Justice Kennedy did not specifically endorse
the report's recommendations, although he has previously denounced
mandatory minimum sentences and called for revision of federal sentencing
guidelines.

In his speech to the ABA last year, Justice Kennedy said existing
guidelines give prosecutors too much power and judges too little discretion.

The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the federal guidelines in
1989, but on Monday a federal judge in Boston seemed to echo Justice
Kennedy in ruling that the guidelines are unconstitutional because they
weight the system toward prosecutors.

"The focus of our entire criminal justice system has shifted away from
trials and juries and adjudication to a massive system of sentence
bargaining that is heavily rigged against the accused citizen," U.S.
District Judge William G. Young wrote.

The ABA will vote in August on whether to adopt the recommendations as
official positions of the organization. The ABA's policies are not law but
are influential.

The ABA report also urged governors and the president to pardon more
deserving prisoners, and recommended stronger efforts to reduce racial
disparities in sentencing and in the prison population.