European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 27, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday september 27r 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 17 crime Bill in apartheid South Africa at times when political prisoners were subjected to harsh treatment they were still allowed to earn University degrees by correspondence. A for the United states Congress in 1994, that idea is too enlightened. One Section of the omnibus crime Bill recently signed by president Clinton forbids the awarding of Pell Grants for higher education to anyone in prison. That will just about end the possibility of prisoners who Are mostly poor earning College credits. Is that provision of the Bill a blow. Against crime to the contrary. Studies show that prisoners who do College work Are less than half As Likely As other inmates to commit new crimes after their release. No Congress inserted the provision to show the Public How a a Tough it could be a How mean How Nasty. The realities of fighting crime had nothing to do with it a or with Many other parts of the crime Bill. Consider what the Bill does about mandatory minimum sentences which prison officials and judges and other experts regard As a distorting and self defeating trend in our Law. Congress in recent years has fixed minimum sentences for Many drug offences. Judges have lost their right a their duty a to consider the particular facts of the crime and the offender. They Are required to put Many nonviolent first time drug offenders away for five or 10 years. More than 100,000 new drug offenders Are being committed to state and Federal prisons every year. The inevitable result is overcrowding of those prisons. Some states solve the problem by releasing other prisoners including those whom the Public rightly fears most men who committed violent crimes. The new Bill moves to lengthen state prison terms As Well. It does so by offering states Large sums to build new prisons Anthony Lewis a but Only if they Promise to make serious offenders serve at least 85 percent of their sentenced times. Most states now release prisoners after they serve a far smaller portion of their sentences. To get the Federal Money the states will have to make their prisons even More Oyer crowded. As the crime Bill first came out of a Senate House conference it had a provision exempting nonviolent drug offenders who cooperated with the prosecution for mandatory sentences a and applying that exemption to similar offenders already in prison. A freshman Republican congressman from new York Rick Lazio demanded elimination of the retroactive clause. To get his vote for letting the Bill come to the floor the democrats gave Way to him. As a result someone who sold a Small amount of crack last year May be in a Penitentiary for 10 years while someone newly convicted serves two years. These Are Small examples of benighted provisions that make this crime Bill not just a flawed but a wrong headed piece of legislation. Others can be briefly indicated. Rep. Susan Molinari r-n.y., got into the Bill a Section allowing Federal prosecutors to disclose at the trial of sex crimes the fact that the defendant was previously charged not convicted with a sexual offence civil or criminal no matter How Long ago. So someone falsely a the a a a be branded. Used a and that does happen a would another provision Narrows the circumstances in which Federal courts can find that conditions in a prison Are cruel and unusual in violation of the Constitution. Another Waters Down the present Rule against executing people who Are so mentally ill that they cannot understand the proceedings against them. The better known provisions of the crime Bill such As a three strikes you re out a have their own flaws. How did such a misbegotten piece of legislation become Law a a a a a v a a a a. The answer is simple politics. Democrats wanted to take the crime Issue away from republicans. Republicans responded by sounding  the Justice department did not work effectively against the worst features because president Clinton wanted something a anything a labelled a crime  since 1970 the number of inmates in american prisons has quadrupled. We have now passed South Africa for the title of most prisoners per capita in the world. None of this has had a measurable effect on our shockingly High level of crime. But our government has decided As the economist Magazine put it Quot to take this failed approach to crime policy and extend  c now York times Ted Kennedy s career imperilled by gop rival Massachusetts May be the Jurassic Park of american politics where the Dinosaur of liberalism lumbers on oblivious to the fact that its Era has Long since passed. But the tyrannosaurus Rex is endangered. For some while whispers have been heard this time Ted Kennedy May actually have to break a sweat to get re elected. Then two Days before the primary a poll by a respected Cambridge firm showed Kennedy in a statistical dead heat with Republican Mitt Romney whom republicans chose in the sept. 20 primary. Romney a 47-year-old venture capitalist is approximately what republicans would have asked Central casting to Send to them As the Ideal contrast with Kennedy Romney is bemused by the fact that Kennedy has hired detectives to Snoop into his past. A mormon father of five sons he does no to drink not even coca cola with caffeine. People who know him swear he never swears. This race is in the words of the Boston globes Ben Bra fee or Pat Boone against Dean Martin. Romney was 15 in 1962 when Kennedy was first elected to the Senate and Romney a father George was elected governor of Michigan. Mitt Romney espouses a blend of fiscal conservatism and social tolerance he is pro Choice on abortion like that of the incumbent governor Republican William Weld who is romping toward re election. In Kennedy a five re election campaigns he has averaged More than 66 percent of the vote. The Cambridge poll says Romney 43 percent Kennedy 47 percent. When those numbers percolate out to the country conservatives will reach for their Check books. Romney expects to spend $7 million and expects Kennedy to spend More. But Kennedy a real War Chest is the Federal budget. He a translating his Semora to fourth in the Senate behind Strom Thurmond George will Robert Byrd and Claiborne Pel Vinto contracts Public works and other ingredients of Massachusetts High pork diet. Massachusetts Economy has been badly bruised by Massachusetts government the Dukakis a a Miracle by defense cutbacks and by a shakeout in the computer Industry. So the Large place Kennedy occupies at the Federal trough is an asset people Here May be reluctant to surrender. Furthermore old habits die hard. There has been at least one Kennedy brother in con Gress for All but two of the last. 48 years since Jack went from the Navy to the House in 1946. And Ted whose Wisest detractors will concede that he is a gifted legislator has arguably had a More consequential career than either Jack or Robert. So Romney. Is running against a Public Monument and in a state in which although it is not actually illegal to Register Republican Only 13 percent of voters do. On the other hand More than a third of the eligible voters were not yet born when John Kennedy was assassinated. To them Camelot is As Distant As the Taft administration. Massachusetts went from being the one state George Mcgovern carried in 1972 to being one of the 44 states Reagan carried twice. Still in the last seven presidential elections since 1968 Massachusetts has been just slightly less democratic than the most democratic state Rhode Island. If the issues from welfare Reform through health care Reform get squarely joined this Campaign could be a Clear Liberal is. Conservative Choice. So far however Romney has been criticized by the Kennedy Camp and by a rival for the Republican nomination mostly concerning his business record. But Romney believes it is unlikely that the election will turn on such Micro matters As the fact that members of the family of one of his investors have unsavoury political connections in Central America. Or the fact that Romney financed one of his 59 business deals through Drexel Burnham of Michael Milken Fame. The political puritans who started Massachusetts As a Semi theocracy might like the tone of today a Campaign. One of Romney a aides weary of questions about whether his candidates mormonism makes him insensitive to women a issues wondered aloud Why no one asked Kennedy about say whether the Catholic Church should ordain women priests. Someone did ask. And Kennedy said the Church should. Then the newspaper of the Boston archdiocese editorially told Kennedy in effect one Pope at a time please. There Are still six weeks for seriousness. Then there could be a closing curtain for an Era. The two emblematic figures of liberalism today Are two North easterners born less than four months apart in 1932, the year liberalism came of age with the election to the presidency of another Nort easterner Franklin d. Roosevelt. Kennedy is one of the two. The other is Mario Cuomo who is behind in his quest for a fourth term. American politics would be grayer without these two. But the National mood now May be that Gray is Beautiful. C Washington Post