GOVERNOR PLAYING POLITICS WITH CRIME

With the election year rhetoric in full swing again, I pray the Register
will allow readers this point of view concerning Gov. Don Siegelman's
hackneyed truth-in-sentencing and tough-on-crime pitch.

Anytime a felon receives a prison term in Alabama, the judge in each case
is well aware of the portion of the sentence that will be served behind
bars. The sentence imposed reflects this knowledge and also allows for a
process to be set in motion.

But there's a problem that seems to beset us all: It's like pulling teeth
to get a vote-seeking politician to tell the whole story about anything.
Though there are many antisocial predators who must be kept in prison
segregated from society, there are also hundreds of people in our prisons
whose crimes were an aberration.

They made a mistake that may indeed warrant punishment, but we are all
fallible human beings who err, and common sense and decency insist that
these people be returned to society before having to spend 20 or 30 years
rotting in a prison, as all the perfect politicians would have it. Sadly,
instead of supporting the process that accomplishes this good, our very own
governor continually undermines and demeans it, and the state parole board
in particular, by failing to back its decisions.

These are indeed difficult decisions, but at all costs they should be kept
out of the hands of politicians, for their ideals tend to easily change
with the constituency that happens to be present. Instead, they should
continue to be addressed by knowledgeable people capable of tempering
justice with mercy for those deserving mercy -- a quality I personally have
yet to see displayed by our present governor.

RICHARD LEAMAN

Kilby Correctional Center