Pubdate: Mon, 29 Dec 2008
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Page: B01
Copyright: 2008 The Washington Post Company
Contact:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Sandhya Somashekhar, Washington Post Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)

WEBB SETS HIS SIGHTS ON PRISON REFORM

Senator Proposes National Panel

Somewhere along the meandering career path that led James Webb to the 
U.S. Senate, he found himself in the frigid interior of a Japanese prison.

A journalist at the time, he was working on an article about Ed 
Arnett, an American who had spent two years in Fuchu Prison for 
possession of marijuana. In a January 1984 Parade magazine piece, 
Webb described the harsh conditions imposed on Arnett, who had 
frostbite and sometimes labored in solitary confinement making paper bags.

"But, surprisingly, Arnett, home in Omaha, Neb., says he prefers 
Japan's legal system to ours," Webb wrote. "Why? 'Because it's fair,' he said."

This spring, Webb (D-Va.) plans to introduce legislation on a 
long-standing passion of his: reforming the U.S. prison system. Jails 
teem with young black men who later struggle to rejoin society, he 
says. Drug addicts and the mentally ill take up cells that would be 
better used for violent criminals. And politicians have failed to 
address this costly problem for fear of being labeled "soft on crime."

It is a gamble for Webb, a fiery and cerebral Democrat from a 
staunchly law-and-order state. Virginia abolished parole in 1995, and 
it trails only Texas in the number of people it has executed. 
Moreover, as the country struggles with two wars overseas and an 
ailing economy, overflowing prisons are the last thing on many 
lawmakers' minds.

But Webb has never been one to rely on polls or political indicators 
to guide his way. He seems instead to charge ahead on projects that 
he has decided are worthy of his time, regardless of how they play -- 
or even whether they represent the priorities of the state he represents.

State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli II (R-Fairfax), who is running for attorney 
general, said the initiative sounds "out of line" with the desires of 
people in Virginia but not necessarily surprising for Webb. The 
senator, he said, "is more emotion than brain in terms of what leads 
his agenda."

Some say Webb's go-it-alone approach could come back to haunt him.

"He clearly has limited interest in the political art, you might say, 
of reelection," said Robert D. Holsworth, a political science 
professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Webb's supporters say his independent streak will be rewarded. They 
note that his early opposition to the Iraq war helped carry him to 
victory over incumbent Republican George Allen in 2006. Two years 
after taking office, they point out, he took the unusual step as a 
freshman senator of authoring major legislation: a new GI Bill to 
expand education benefits to veterans of recent wars.

They say there is no better messenger on the unlikely issue of 
criminal justice reform.

"It's perceived as a great political sin to represent any position 
besides 'lock 'em up and throw the key away,' " said state Sen. J. 
Chapman Petersen (D-Fairfax). "With Jim's personality, he's never 
going to strike somebody as being soft on crime or any other issue. 
For that reason, he might be better able to lead this cause. He's a 
pretty tough guy."

Webb is a decorated Marine who served as Navy secretary under 
President Ronald Reagan. He has also been a journalist, a novelist 
and a Hollywood screenwriter. In an interview last week, he said his 
experience in the military, a culture that is "disciplined but fair," 
led to his interest in the prison system.

However, he believes it is his experience as a writer that will allow 
him to articulate a new approach.

"I enjoy grabbing hold of really complex issues and boiling them down 
in a way that they can be understood by everyone," he said. "I think 
you can be a law-and-order leader and still understand that the 
criminal justice system as we understand it today is broken, unfair, 
locking up the wrong people in many cases and not locking up the 
right person in many cases."

In speeches and in a book that devotes a chapter to prison issues, 
Webb describes a U.S. prison system that is deeply flawed in how it 
targets, punishes and releases those identified as criminals.

With 2.3 million people behind bars, the United States has imprisoned 
a higher percentage of its population than any other nation, 
according to the Pew Center on the States and other groups. Although 
the United States has only 5 percent of the world's population, it 
has 25 percent of its prison population, Webb says.

A disproportionate number of those who are incarcerated are black, 
Webb notes. African Americans make up 13 percent of the population, 
but they comprise more than half of all prison inmates, compared with 
one-third two decades ago. Today, Webb says, a black man without a 
high school diploma has a 60 percent chance of going to prison.

Webb aims much of his criticism at enforcement efforts that he says 
too often target low-level drug offenders and parole violators, 
rather than those who perpetrate violence, such as gang members. He 
also blames policies that strip felons of citizenship rights and can 
hinder their chances of finding a job after release. He says he 
believes society can be made safer while making the system more 
humane and cost-effective.

That point of view has gained steam with members of both parties. 
Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) recently proposed earlier release 
for some prisoners convicted of nonviolent crimes as a cost-cutting measure.

But the movement is alarming to drug enforcement advocates. Tom 
Riley, spokesman for the Office of National Drug Policy Initiatives, 
said it has become an "urban myth" that the nation imprisons vast 
numbers of low-level drug offenders.

People are often surprised to learn that less than one-half of 1 
percent of all inmates are in for marijuana possession, he said. And 
those offenders were caught holding, on average, 100 pounds.

"That's a pretty different picture than I think most people have," 
Riley said. "It's true, we have way too many people in prison. But 
it's not because the laws are unjust, but because there are too many 
people who are causing havoc and misery in the community."

J. Scott Leake, a GOP strategist in Virginia, said there is a reason 
Virginians enjoy low crime rates. "[It's] because of the policies 
we've already put in place," he said. "If Senator Webb were to try to 
roll some of that back, I think he would have a fight on his hands."

Webb isn't known to shy from a fight. He said this spring that he'll 
introduce legislation that creates a national panel to recommend ways 
to overhaul the criminal justice system.

In his article about the Japanese prisons, Webb described inmates 
living in unheated cells and being prohibited from possessing writing 
materials. Arnett's head was shaved every two weeks, and he was 
forbidden to look out the window.

Still, Webb said, the United States could learn from the Japanese 
system. In his book, "A Time to Fight," he wrote that the Japanese 
focused less on retribution. Sentences were short, and inmates often 
left prison with marketable job skills. Ironically, he said, the 
system was modeled on philosophies pioneered by Americans, who he 
says have since lost their way on the matter.

Webb believes he can guide the nation back. "Contrary to so much of 
today's political rhetoric," he wrote, "to do so would be an act not 
of weakness but of strength."
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake