PRYOR TOUTS SENTENCING REFORM

MONTGOMERY - A report before Alabama lawmakers is a good plan for ensuring
the most violent criminals serve their full sentences and for taking many
nonviolent and drug offenders out of the jam-packed state prison system,
Alabama's attorney general said Friday.

Bill Pryor, tapped this week by President Bush for a federal appeals
judgeship, endorsed the report while speaking to about 150 members of a
civic group. He declined to speak about the judgeship nomination.

Pryor called the report by the Alabama Sentencing Commission an opportunity
to institute "truth in sentencing" and help reduce prison overcrowding, one
of the biggest problems facing Alabama.

"I'm a proponent of more community-based programs," Pryor said.

Pryor said some offenders, especially first-time offenders, should be
required to work and pay restitution or get counseling for drug problems
rather than serve sentences in a state prison.

Pryor said prisoners too often serve far less time than they were sentenced
to. People in different parts of the state convicted of the same crime
often serve radically different terms. "Too often it is dishonest, too
often it is unfair, too often it is irrational," Pryor said of the state's
system of sentencing prisoners.

Pryor called for more funding for community-based programs, more prisons
and more correctional officers but didn't offer suggestions about where the
money could come from. It could take months for Pryor's nomination to the
11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to work its way through the Senate
confirmation process.

But if he is confirmed - no sure thing - Pryor will no longer be in a
unique position to foster his goal of a thorough restructuring of state
sentencing laws. Now in his seventh year as Alabama's attorney general,
Pryor established the committee that led to the formation of the Alabama
Sentencing Commission.

"This has to be bigger than any one person or officials," Pryor said before
his talk. "The mechanism, the structure is in place. No matter how long I
serve as attorney general there's still going to be work to be done on
sentencing."

It remains unclear whether Pryor's experience in federal law will help or
hinder the conservative in what could be a grueling Senate confirmation
process.

Pryor's nomination to the federal appeals court, which handles appellate
cases for Alabama, Florida and Georgia, had been expected since January
when Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., announced President Bush was eyeing him
for the job.

Bush made the selection official Wednesday, and Pryor, 40, indicated in a
brief statement he would accept.

The first step will likely be a hearing before the Senate Judiciary
Committee, where Sessions occupies an influential post.

Sessions and Alabama's senior senator, Republican Richard Shelby, gave
Pryor a ringing endorsement, but Sessions conceded Pryor's political
activity and outspoken opposition to abortion rights could make him a
target of liberals.