HARSH METH LAWS STRAP PRISONS

LITTLE ROCK (AP) - Arkansas prison officials say a state law passed a few
years ago to fight the state's growing problem with methamphetamine is
making their job - and their budget - tougher to handle.

Department of Correction officials say they plan to ask legislators during
the session that begins in January to reconsider a law that requires
certain meth offenders to spend 70 percent of their sentences behind bars.
That requirement alone will cost state taxpayers millions of dollars.

The department, which last month set a record population with nearly 13,000
inmates, simply needs more money to meet those demands, department
spokesman Dina Tyler said.

"This is a decision lawmakers have to make," Tyler said. "If this is what
the state wants us to do, we'll do what the state wants us to do. But we'll
need money."

About 500 inmates in Arkansas prisons are there for meth-related offenses
covered under the 70 percent law. Those mandated terms far exceed those of
inmates convicted of other drug offenses and compound crowding problems
that have contributed to significant budget shortfalls this fiscal year,
officials say.

Prison officials already plan to ask legislators in 2003 for $18 million in
supplemental appropriations to cover shortfalls, including paying county
jails for housing inmates. They also plan to ask that the department's
annual budget of $185 million be increased by $40 million for the next
fiscal year for needs such as increased medical costs and staffing new prisons.

Most drug offenders typically serve about two years and one month before
being paroled, costing the state about $31,000 each. Meth offenders covered
by the 70 percent law serve an average of nine years and cost about
$138,000 each.

"There was an outcry to do something about the meth problems," said state
Rep. Bob Adams (D-White Hall). "That was the legislature's answer, and the
problem was it was too effective. It filled the prison with meth offenders.
It took care of one problem, but it created another."

But repealing or amending the law, as state Sen. Mike Everett (D-Marked
Tree) unsuccessfully tried to do during the 2001 legislative session, faces
considerable opposition from some legislators and law enforcement officials.

"I'm sure there'll be some support," said state Sen. Jack Critcher
(D-Grubbs). But he added, "I don't think there's enough support in the
legislature to repeal the law. I know I'm going to fight strongly against
it because prosecutors and sheriffs tell me it's the best tool they have."

Jackson County Sheriff Jim Bishop said any repeal would undermine
everything law enforcement officials have been doing for the past three
years to curtail meth production.

"LSD was scary, but that was nothing like this crystal meth," said Bishop,
who has been in law enforcement for 30 years. "Once it gets ahold of you,
it's got you."