Bar President Swings at ‘Three Strikes’ Crime Provision : Law: He calls it a political ‘quick fix’ that would have no effect on curbing urban violence. Long-range solutions are backed at conference.

The Clinton Administration’s call for life imprisonment for three-time violent offenders is a political quick fix that would have no effect on the crime rate, American Bar Assn. President R. William Ide said Wednesday.

Ide called for a change in direction toward greater local involvement in crime-fighting. His comments opened a two-day conference designed to slow down or stall the growing White House and congressional support for stiffer mandatory sentences.

Lawmakers applauded President Clinton during his State of the Union speech Tuesday night when he advocated swift congressional approval of a crime bill--including the popular “three-strikes-and-you’re out” provision already passed by the Senate. The House Judiciary Committee is expected to hold hearings on its own version of the measure next month, with Senate-House negotiations likely to lead to a final bill.

“The quick-fix frenzy has captured our political leadership,” Ide told an audience of law enforcement specialists from 29 national organizations. “It’s understandable that Congress wants to be seen as tough on crime in a political year . . . but federalization of crimes that belong in state jurisdictions is posturing and not a long-range solution to violent crime.”

Provisions of the crime legislation would add to a growing list of violence- or drug-related offenses that Congress has given federal authorities power to prosecute. Such crimes historically have been the purview of local and state authorities.

Ide asked Congress and the Administration to consider whether the so-called “three-time-loser” provision would be “just another politically palatable quick fix . . . or will this new idea be the straw that breaks the back of our overburdened criminal justice system.”

Deputy Atty. Gen. Philip B. Heymann, who also spoke at the conference, said that the Justice Department was examining the Senate-approved provision to see what crimes would trigger a life sentence and whether it should apply to offenses committed by juveniles.

But he said that the law would require life in prison without parole, without exceptions, for those sentenced under such a procedure. “The whole purpose of this is to send a clear signal” to potential offenders, Heymann said.

In his address, Ide said that the Senate’s classification of handgun murders as federal crimes and approval of mandatory federal penalties for using a handgun might be self-defeating.

Mandatory minimum sentencing, he pointed out, has already filled prisons to capacity, forcing authorities to grant other violent offenders early release.

Ide said that the United States has 1.3 million people in prison or jail cells--more than any other country in the world--with very little impact on crime rates over the past decade.

James Fyfe, a former New York City police officer who is now professor of criminal justice at Temple University, also criticized the “three-time-loser” proposal on grounds that the third crime must be subject to federal jurisdiction, which does not now cover most street crimes.

“It really doesn’t do much for the little old lady worried about crime in the streets,” Fyfe said. “There’s an awful lot of posturing going on.

“We have to ask some very tough questions of politicians, especially at the federal level, and get them to address root causes (of crime),” he added.

Ide also questioned how Clinton’s plan to put another 100,000 police officers on the streets would impact state prosecutors, courts and prisons.

“Where are the resources to try the accused?” Ide asked. “Where are the resources to house the convicted?”

Ide advocated greater emphasis on crime prevention, along with imprisonment of career criminals by mobilizing local police, prosecutors, judges, treatment specialists, parole officers and community organizations into crime-fighting coalitions.

“Violent crime is a community problem that must be solved through community involvement,” he said.