LAWYERS GROUP TO REVIEW SENTENCING

American Bar Association's New President Calls For Study Of Prisons

San Francisco--The new president of the American Bar Association
launched a review Monday to determine whether minimum prison sentences
and narrow sentencing guidelines should be repealed or revised.

Dennis Archer, the first black president in the ABA's 125-year
history, said he agreed with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony
Kennedy that the United States imprisons too many people and keeps
them in prison too long.

In a speech Saturday evening to the bar group's opening assembly,
Kennedy had urged the nation's lawyers to get more involved in
improving prison conditions and in reducing the number of people in
prison.

"Our country should not be leading the world as a nation that
incarcerates more people per capita than any other nation," said
Archer, a Detroit lawyer.

Kennedy had told the group that about one in 143 people in the United
States is in prison, while countries such as Great Britain, France and
Italy incarcerate about 1 in 1,000 people.

Archer said the bar association will report back to members on the
issue by next year's annual convention in Atlanta.

"First, we will evaluate whether the time has come to repeal the use
of mandatory minimum sentences on both the state and federal levels,"
Archer said.

"Second, we will examine the question of why more than 40 percent of
our 2.1 million prison population are people of color."

The group will also look at prison conditions and high rates of
recidivism; sentencing guidelines; and the pardon and parole process
at state and federal levels.