Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 11, 1993 TAG: 9303110429
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-14 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
FIGHTING CRIME IN SEVERAL WAYS
OPPOSITION to Janet Reno's confirmation as attorney general is tepid and collapsing. Its most serious objection is that maybe she hasn't been tough enough as Miami's chief prosecutor. She is personally opposed to the death penalty and, worse, she's shown a tendency toward social work.Uh-oh.
Can the fabric of the nation be held together if its chief law enforcement officer is worried about more than how many people she can lock up? If she believes that society may be able to do something to stop innocent children from hardening into criminals?
Could be. In fact, the fabric might not only hold up, but be made stronger. It sure is being torn at now, and traditional responses to the threat seem to be solving little. Consider, for example, that Roanoke is preparing to spend millions of dollars to expand its jail because of the overflow crowd of criminals and suspects the police have plucked off our streets. And after the felons have served their time, where will they be? Back on our streets.
Is this the best we can do?
Reno doesn't think so. Her views are shaped by decades of work as a tough prosecutor in a drug-soaked part of the country where she has seen younger and younger defendants accused of more and more serious crimes. She told the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday that in prosecuting Florida's youth, "I suddenly see a child born to a crack-addicted mother . . . a child who has never known his father. It breaks your heart. And you know that if society had intervened at an earlier date and given that child a constructive chance" perhaps a crime might not have occurred.
Don't mistake her for a bleeding heart. Reno has shown as much interest in prevention as punishment, but not in one to the exclusion of the other.
She believes in expanded drug treatment programs - but also in aggressive prosecution of drug traffickers. She favors tough gun-control laws.
Yes, Reno has shown unusual determination going after child abusers, spouse batterers and deadbeat parents. But why should this connote softness on crime? Do the really tough crime-fighters believe that cracking down on child abuse is for sissies?
Reno told the senators that long delays in imposing death sentences make a "mockery of the justice system." Though she personally opposes capital punishment, she has sought and won it for offenders guilty of heinous crimes. As a law-enforcement officer, she has enforced the law, not tried to create new law of her own choosing. But she has been honest with a public that disagrees with her on this point.
Indeed, honesty and strength of character are written all over Reno, in contrast with some of the Justice Department's former chiefs. Her quick confirmation seems assured, and this is a cause for hope.
Policymakers who say they're tough on crime generally mean they favor meting out longer sentences and building more prisons. Yet crime keeps on growing. Reno's blend of fighting the causes of crime, while making sure and swift the punitive consequences, marks a welcome change of philosophy.