THE TRUTH ABOUT TRUTH-IN-SENTENCING

By Jim Wootton

Jim Wootton is the founder and president of the Safe Streets Alliance in Washington, D. C.

Since 1960, violent crime in our country has increased by 500 percent. A 1987 Justice Department study found that eight out of ten Americans will be victims of violent crime in their lifetimes. Six million violent crimes were measured by the Justice Department in 1990.

Why Is There More Crime Today?

There are a lot of theories about which mix of family background and environmental conditions might influence a person to become a criminal. However, these theories always run headlong into the stubborn fact that most of the kids with similar backgrounds and similar environments do not become criminals themselves. What we do know is that year in and year out, our society, for whatever reason, produces a new crop of hard-core criminals. The government's paramount obligation is to protect law-abiding citizens from becoming their victims.

Criminologist Marvin Wolfang compiled arrest records for every male born and raised in Philadelphia in 1945 and again in 1958. Just seven percent of each

age group committed two-thirds of all violent crime in the area, including three-fourths of the rapes and robberies, and virtually all of the murders. This seven percent not only had five or more arrests by the age of 18, but, for every arrest made, got away with about a dozen crimes. In an article based on Wolfgang's studies, it has been suggested that about 75,000 new, young, persistent criminal predators are added to our population every year.

Are There Any Programs That Work?

When I was at the Justice Department in the early '80s, we funded projects in 20 cities where police, prosecutors, schools, and welfare and probation workers pooled information to focus on these serious habitual offenders. As part of this program, the city of Oxnard, California, worked to get its 30 active habitual offenders behind bars. As a direct result, in 1987 violent crimes dropped 38 percent, more than double the drop in any other California city. By 1989, when all 30 active, serious habitual offenders were behind bars, murders declined by 60 percent, robberies by 41 percent, and burglaries by 29 percent.

The city of Oxnard, California, worked to get its 30 active habitual offenders behind bars. As a direct result, in 1987, violent crimes dropped 38 percent, more than double the drop in any other California city. By 1989, when all 30 active, serious habitual offenders were behind bars, murders declined by 60 percent, robberies by 41 percent, and burglaries by 29 percent.

How Much Time Do Criminals Serve?

Although violent offenders receive an average sentence of seven years and 11 months, they actually serve an average of only two years and 11 months -- 37 percent of their imposed sentences. Overall, 51 percent of violent offenders are discharged from prison in two years or less.

The average citizen is usually shocked when he or she is told that violent criminals serve only 5.5 years for murder, 3 for rape, 2.25 years for robbery, 1.28 years for assault and 2.5 years for child molestation. We have to ask the question: Is 5.5 years long enough to serve in prison for intentionally taking another human being's life?

The debate on whether we are imprisoning the right criminals is currently heating up. Of inmates incarcerated in state prisons in 1986, almost 55 percent were serving time for a violent offense. Twenty-nine percent were non-violent repeat criminals. In sum, 95 percent of all state inmates were either violent or repeat offenders.

The one change that would have the greatest impact is the passage by states of truth-in-sentencing laws, which require violent criminals to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences.

What We Can Do

It is time to make some changes. The one change that would have the greatest impact is the passage by states of truth-in-sentencing laws, which require convicted violent criminals to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences. The U.S. Congress enacted this kind of requirement for federal crimes in the mid-1980s, and Arizona passed similar legislation in 1993.

Ironically, those who benefit from such a law are never immediately visible. They are the young men and women who will live to adulthood, the women who are not raped, the store clerks who are not robbed, the children who are not murdered or molested. They are the non-victims of crimes that did not happen because the violent criminal who might have attacked them was behind bars.