Gore Gets Tough On Crime
Trying to shore up his image as a crime fighter, Al Gore outlined a sweeping anti-crime package Tuesday, including a $500 million program to drug-test prisoners and parolees.
The vice president said he has a "simple deal" for prisoners: "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 also proposed using federal money to hire 50,000 new police officers 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 an Atlanta YWCA. He is aiming to cut into George W. Bush's edge on the issue of crime, where the Texas governor holds a 14-point advantage in the latest CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll.
The vice president accused Bush, his Republican rival for the White House, of gutting drug rehabilitation programs in the Lone Star State.
"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."
The Bush campaign countered that funding for drug treatment programs has actually increased during the governor's administration, and criticized the Clinton-Gore record on drugs.
"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," said Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett.
Gore defended Clinton administration policies 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."
The Democratic candidate 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.