Pubdate: Tue, 02 May 2000
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 2000 Associated Press

GORE: GIVE PRISONERS DRUG TESTS

ATLANTA (AP) -- Al Gore proposed a $500 million program today to
drug-test prisoners and parolees in an effort to rehabilitate
criminals, accusing Republican presidential rival George W. Bush of
slashing similar programs as governor of Texas.

Outlining a broad anti-crime package, the vice president also proposed
using federal money to hire 50,000 new police across the country and
said off-duty officers should be allowed to carry concealed weapons.

``I will be a law enforcement president,'' Gore said in a speech at a
local YWCA.

``I believe we should demonstrate that criminals must get clean to get
out of jail. Governor Bush seems content to keep pushing them out the
same old revolving door,'' Gore said. ``We need to get more police,
not fewer. We need to get tougher with repeat offenders, not just put
them back on the streets.''

Gore is trying to cut into Bush's advantage on the issue of crime with
the Texas governor holding a 14-point edge over Gore in a March
CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll, and led him on the issue in April by a
similar margin.

Gore and Bush engaged in a war of statistics, with the vice president
pointing to figures that suggest Texas has gutted drug rehabilitation
programs while Bush's campaign cited numbers that suggest funding
actually increased.

Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett, commenting in advance of the speech,
said, ``We hope Al Gore uses this opportunity to explain why during
his term teen drug use in America nearly doubled, the number of drug
treatment beds in federal prisons were cut by over one-third, the
Office of National Drug Control Policy was cut by 83 percent and
federal gun prosecutions have decreased by 46 percent.''

Gore defended Clinton administration plans and said, ``We have to stop
that revolving door once and for all. First of all we have to test
prisoners for drugs while they are in jail and break up the drug rings
in our prisons. We have to expand drug treatment within our prisons,''

He promised to make prisoners ``a simple deal: before you get out of
jail you have to get off drugs, you have to get clean and drug free.
And if you want to stay out, you better stay clean.''

Gore would create a matching grant program for states and local
communities to help test, treat and punish probationers, prisoners and
parolees who do not pass regular drug tests.

Probationers and parolees would be tested twice a week and could be
sent to prison if they failed to stay away from drugs.

Gore would require former inmates to sign responsibility contracts in
which they also would agree to increased supervision by law
enforcement officials and payment of child support when relevant.

In return, the former convicts would get help in finding jobs. The
initiative would pay for additional law enforcement officials to
supervise offenders and for local services to help the former
prisoners find jobs.

The proposal was developed by President Clinton's domestic policy team
headed by White House adviser Bruce Reed. It would cost $500 million
in the first year and is part of a broader $1.3 billion, 10-year
anti-crime package that Gore first outlined in July.

His package includes:

- -- Ensuring continued funding of a police-on-the-street program
started by President Clinton.

- -- Establishing gang-free zones that would ban the wearing of
gang-related clothing. Civil liberties groups have questioned the
constitutionality of such laws.

- -- Making it a federal crime to stalk a child on the
Internet.

- -- Targeting telemarketers who prey on senior citizens.
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