CRIME BILL SPENDS BILLIONS, BUT PROVIDES LITTLE OF VALUE

In the past couple of years, U.S. crime rates have declined slightly. And yet crime is so rampant that hardly anyone has noticed. Consider: We have a homicide every 42 seconds, a robbery every 40 seconds, and a burglary every 11 seconds. Crime control is the single-most important issue cited by most Americans in recent polls.

The Clinton administration recognizes this, and earlier this year the president drafted what he called the "toughest, smartest crime bill in the history of the United States." But just as Democrats thought they had finally wrested the crime issue away from Republicans, the $33.2 billion crime bill faces a last-minute threat in the House.

The six-year measure would authorize billions of dollars to help put 100,000 new police officers on the street, billions of dollars for prison construction and billions of dollars for crime-prevention efforts. It also contains provisions to create more than 50 new federal death penalties, send some third-time felons to prison for life and ban assault-style firearms.

Gun-control opponents, who want the assault-style weapons ban stripped out of the bill, and black lawmakers, upset that an earlier provision allowing use of statistics to establish a racial quota for executions was stripped out, comprise the bill's unlikely antagonists.

But Congress is wise to consider carefully this bill. It might be politically expedient to push through a law that seems so in tune with public sentiment. Before billions of taxpayer dollars are spent, consider some of the key provisions in the measure.

Expanding the death penalty isn't likely to increase the number of executions in this country. Of the 2,500 convicts on death row, fewer than 2 percent are executed every year, a rate not likely to increase simply because more people are put on death row. Also, the "three strikes and your out" provision for third-time convicted felons could increase homicides. Imagine you are a twice-convicted felon and a little short of cash. Instead of simply robbing your victim, you also put a bullet in his head. After all, the penalty for getting caught is the same whether it is murder or robbery, and dead men don't talk.

Putting 100,000 new cops on the streets might be the best part of this bill. But cities would be able to hire a lot more cops than their share of the 100,000 if the federal government would cease handing down unfunded mandates that devour a large portion of local and state budgets.

The billions the government would spend on crime prevention programs also misses the mark. Self-esteem building efforts aimed at youth through cultural, arts and education programs fail to address the central tenet of crime control: The crime rate can be reduced only by raising the cost to criminals for breaking the law. Likewise, rehabilitation programs aimed at criminals do little to remove the profitability of crime. As one hood is reformed, others will step in.

Until sentences begin to fit the crimes committed, and until inmates begin serving the time to which they are sentenced, provisions such as those in this crime bill will have little genuine effect, other than to further deprive taxpayers of their hard-earned money.