JUSTICE NOT FOR BARGAIN SHOPPERS

Attorney General John Ashcroft is becoming a prolific writer of memos
to the 94 U.S. attorneys.

His latest instructs them to pursue the toughest possible charges and
seek the severest sentences possible. And he also ordered them to
limit the use of plea bargains. The goal, he said, was to bring
uniformity and consistency to federal criminal prosecutions.

By itself, the order is not unreasonable. It reflects the Bush
administration's stand on law enforcement, and it returns to a similar
order the department issued in 1989 during the administration of Bush
senior. The order was relaxed during the Clinton administration. And
Ashcroft's order has reasonable exceptions on plea bargaining, for
example, to reward cooperation and clear overcrowded dockets.

But if there is a problem with overly lenient sentences and go-easy
prosecutors, the Justice Department has yet to prove it. Ashcroft
might be trying to fix a system that isn't broken.

And the order also could have the dangerous effect of diminishing the
discretion of federal judges and prosecutors, a critical point now
that more and more offenses that were once purely state law are now
federal crimes.

Ashcroft also has told the U.S. attorneys to report judges who impose
lighter sentences than called for by federal sentencing guidelines.
Mandatory minimum sentences are already under attack for being too
strict, and attempts by the Bush administration to force judges to
abide by them have been denounced by Chief Justice William Rehnquist
as a dangerous intrusion into the independence of the judiciary.

And, too, the order can be seen as part of a pattern of the attorney
general's office centralizing control of federal prosecutions in
Washington, a worrisome development considering the attorney general's
seeming insensitivity to privacy and civil liberty concerns.

Seeking the toughest charges with the maximum sentences could increase
the federal judiciary's workload. According to the department, 96
percent of the cases in the federal system never go to trial; they are
settled by guilty pleas, pleas to lesser charges or dismissal. With
little possibility of a plea bargain, defendants now have an incentive
to go to trial and then continue the fight through the appeals process.

An increase in the rate and length of incarceration is also a cost
item. The taxpayers will have to shell out to keep more people locked
up longer.

Congress should demand that Ashcroft explain why this order is
necessary.