Crime show.

• Position: Rash of 'tough on crime' legislative action - Column

Within a week in late June we saw politicians perform a dizzying array of stunts to show how tough they are on crime.

First, Republicans in both houses drafted legislation to end a 150-year practice of separating juvenile from adult offenders.

Forget any hope that kids who commit crimes might be redeemed. "Unfortunately, that philosophy is out of date," said Orrin Hatch, the sponsor of the Senate bill. "We've got to quit coddling these violent kids like nothing is going on.... We'd all like to rehabilitate these kids. But, by gosh, we are in a different age."

What Hatch calls a new age of criminal justice means housing kids with adults who will see them for what they are--vulnerable. Young people who end up in cell blocks with adults are often abused, which is why legislators created protections against housing minors with adult prisoners in the first place.

Studies in several states have shown that juveniles incarcerated with adults have higher rates of recidivism than do teens housed in juvenile facilities.

Meanwhile, the assault on habeas corpus, the constitutional protection against illegal imprisonment, continues apace. The Supreme Court will hear only a few, rare appeals, in "exceptional circumstances," the Justices decided on June 28. But that's too generous for Hatch, Utah Republican, who in addition to jailing youngsters, wants to make sure prisoners don't get a chance to appeal. "I am disappointed that the Supreme Court concluded that prisoners...can continue to file habeas petitions," said Hatch. "If there is a continuation of the problems that led Congress to revise the habeas laws, we will need to revisit this area."

Because of the limits on appeals, people like Dennis Williams, who spent eighteen years in prison on false charges, most...