Standardizing Sentences

It is true, as you note in your article on the attempt to make prison sentences more uniform ((LAW, April 27)), that a 10% increase in the prison population over the next decade would be intolerable. But the actual increase could be vastly greater. If just one piece of legislation like last year's drug bill, which calls for stiffer sentencing, is factored in, the increase will be much larger. We simply cannot lock everybody up. Something has got to give. Congress must choose: either allocate many billions of dollars for new prisons, or use imprisonment only where necessary and make greater use of such alternatives as fines, restitution, supervised home confinement, community service and probation, particularly for nonviolent and first offenders.

H. Scott Wallace, Legislative Director

National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers

Washington