Interview With Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone Magazine - part 2 - President Bill Clinton - Interview

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Dec 11, 2000

I think this whole thing needs to be reexamined. Even in the Federal system, these sentencing guidelines-----

Mr. Wenner. You've got mandatory minimums. Would you do away with those?

The President. Well, most judges think we should. I certainly think they should be reexamined--and the disparities are unconscionable between crack and powdered cocaine. I tried to change the disparities, and the Republican Congress was willing to narrow, but not eliminate, them on the theory that people who use crack are more violent than people who use cocaine. Well, what they really meant was that people who use crack are more likely to be poor and, coincidentally, black or brown and, therefore, not have money. Whereas, people who use cocaine were more likely to be rich, pay for it, and therefore be peaceable.

But my own view is, if you do something violent, it's appropriate to have an incarceration. But I think we need a serious re-examination in the view toward what would make us a more peaceful, more productive society. I think some of this, our imprisonment policies, are counterproductive. And now, you know, you have in a lot of places where, before the economy picked up, prison-building was a main source of economic activity, and prison employment was one of the big areas of job growth.

Mr. Wenner. Do you think people should lose access to college loans because they've been convicted of smoking pot--which is now law?

The President. No. I think that, first of all---

Mr. Wenner. I mean, those are people that seem to need a loan the most.

The President. First of all, I don't believe, by and large, in permanent lifetime penalties. There is a bill in Congress today that has bipartisan support that I was hoping would pass before I left office, but I feel confident it will in the next year or 2--which would restore voting rights to people after their full sentences have been discharged, and they wouldn't have to apply for a Federal pardon to get it.

I changed the law in Arkansas. When I was attorney general I changed the voting rights law in 1977, to restore voting rights to people when they had discharged their sentence. And my State is one of the relatively few States in the country where you do not have to get a pardon from the Governor to register to vote again--or from the Federal Government, for that matter.

Look, it depends on what your theory is. But I don't believe in making people wear a chain for life. If they get a sentence from a jury, if they serve it under the law, if they discharge their sentence, the rest of us have an interest in a safe society, in a successful society, and seeing that these folks go back to productive lives. You know, keeping them with a scarlet letter on their forehead for the rest of their lives and a chain around their neck is not very productive.

Mr. Wenner. Just to wrap this up, do you think that we need a major rethink of what these drug sentencing laws are?

The President. Not just drugs. I think we need to look at who's in prison, what are the facts---