Copyright 2000 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company
The Houston Chronicle
May 03, 2000, Wednesday 3 STAR EDITION
SECTION: A; Pg. 6
LENGTH:
602 words
HEADLINE: Gore vows to intensify battle
against crime, drugs, disorder
SOURCE: Staff
BYLINE: BENNETT ROTH, CLAY ROBISON, Houston Chronicle
Austin Bureau
DATELINE: ATLANTA
BODY:
ATLANTA - Eager to steal a traditional
Republican theme, Democratic presidential contender Al Gore on Tuesday pledged
to be the "law enforcement president" by cracking down on drug use in prisons,
hiring more police and giving off-duty officers the right to
carry concealed weapons.
"I will intensify the battle against
crime, drugs and disorder in our communities," Gore said at the Virginia
Highlands YWCA. He slammed Republican presidential contender George W. Bush,
claiming the Texas governor had slashed drug-rehabilitation funds for Texas
prisoners. While many of the proposals in the law-and-order speech were not new,
Gore fleshed out his previous plans by including a plan to give states federal
funds to provide mandatory drug testing for prisoners, parolees and
probationers.
The program would require twice-weekly testing for
probationers and parolees, who would face increasing sanctions, including a
return to prison, for failure to remain drug-free.
"I believe we should
make prisoners a simple deal," he said. "Before you get out of jail, you have to
get off drugs. You have to be clean and drug-free. And if you want to stay out,
you better stay clean. "
Gore aides said that although federal prisons
require drug testing, not all state and local criminal justice facilities do.
They said the cost of the program would be $ 500 million in the first year,
which would be in addition to the $ 1.3 billion criminal-justice package Gore
unveiled last summer.
The Bush campaign fired back that Gore's tough
talk on drugs was undermined by the Clinton-Gore administration's record on the
issue.
"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 a 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 Bart-lett.
"If Al Gore is willing to
attack Texas, where violent crime is at a 20-year low and the largest
drug-treatment program in the country is located, we're also expecting attack on
Texans for defending the Alamo," he said.
As part of his overall crime
plan, the vice president has proposed funding for the hiring of 50,000 new
police officers, on top of the 100,000 new officers approved by Congress at the
request of the Clinton administration. About 60 percent of those officers are
already on the street.
The vice president, who has hammered Bush for
supporting a concealed-weapons law in Texas, said he would back legislation
giving off-duty and retired state and local police officers the right to carry
such arms.
Such concealed-weapons legislation, his campaign said, would
give local and state police the same rights to carry concealed weapons as
federal law enforcement officials already have.
The crime-and-drug
speech was part of a series of addresses in which Gore has sought to
differentiate between himself and Bush on a range of issues, including the
economy, education, foreign policy and health care.
In a USA
Today/CNN/Gallup poll published Tuesday, voters ranked crime among their top
issues, behind only education and health care. Overall, the poll found Bush
edging Gore 49 percent to 44 percent, a slight improvement for the vice
president, who trailed by 9 percentage points three weeks ago.
As in his
previous addresses, Gore sought to portray himself as a centrist Democrat in the
mold of President Clinton, who abandoned some of the more liberal party
positions that alienated many voters in the 1970s and 1980s.
GRAPHIC: Mug: Al Gore: "I believe we should
make prisoners a simple deal. Before you get out of jail, you have to get off
drugs. "
NOTES: Chronicle Austin Bureau Chief Clay
Robison contributed to this story.
LOAD-DATE: May 4,
2000 
