With Daring Prison-Reform Proposal, Sen. Jim Webb Tries to Make Each Word Count

But it is commission duty No. 6 that keeps drawing attention, making Webb's proposal an eye-catcher in the sea of congressional proposals that might or might not go all the way: "Restructure the approach to criminalization of, and incarceration as the result of, the possession or use of illegal drugs, decreasing the demand for illicit drugs, and improving the treatment for addiction."

For once, Webb's mastery of the English language doesn't sound so masterful. This reads as arched-eyebrow intriguing, but gimme-a-break murky.

Is he saying that drugs should be decriminalized, or what?

In the Richmond interview, Webb clearly doesn't like where this line of questioning is going. (After our meeting, his press rep sends an e-mail, saying how uncomfortable they were and noting that the tension was "palpable.") Webb scans for tripwires, parsing each question tossed at him. Once, he says, a journalist tried to trick him into hoisting a grenade to get some color for a piece. He didn't fall for it.

The senator grumbles that no one should fall into the easy assumption that his interest in drug policy might be inspired in some way by his time in Vietnam, a war so often depicted on the big screen through a gauzy haze of pot smoke.

"I saw far more drugs at Georgetown Law Center than I ever saw in the military," says Webb, who earned a law degree at Georgetown in 1975.

Webb wants to frame his project as a sweeping examination of the American criminal justice system, a thoughtful study that defies simplification or distillation.

He notes that he doesn't want to "pre-judge" before the commission has even been formed. But he does provide a list of "findings" in his bill to get any future commission started.

Those findings, which echo Webb's speeches and his public comments, describe a criminal justice system in desperate need of repair. He points out that 2.38 million people are locked up in the United States, "five times the world's average incarceration rate," and that 7.3 million Americans are either incarcerated or on probation or parole --"an increase of 290 percent since 1980."

"Either we have the most evil people on Earth living in the United States," Webb said when he introduced his bill March 26, "or we are doing something dramatically wrong in terms of how we approach the issue of criminal justice."

In his bill, he goes on to state that high incarceration rates have not lessened the availability of drugs and says that "treating addiction will significantly help decrease demand." He also paints a grim picture of life inside the nation's prisons, citing high HIV rates among inmates and disturbing levels of sexual abuse behind bars.

But what about commission duty No. 6? This one looks like it could be big. Does this mean he'd support decriminalizing or legalizing drugs?