Bennett

 

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LP Atm Dever

Mr. William P. Rogers | July 12, 1956
Deputy Attorney General

James V. Bennett, Director, Bureau of
Prisons

HR 11619 - Narcotic Control Act of 1956

This is in response to your request for reconm-
mendations as to Presidential approval of the above bill.

I strongly urge that H.R. 11619 be vetoed be-
cause? |

1. It removes every vestige of discretion from
both the judicial and executive branches of
Government with respect to sentences applying
not only to heroin and opium offenders but also
the much larger category of marihuana offenders,

(a) It revokes the probation statute and
requires therefore that an accidental first
offender or a person addicted in the course
of legitimate wedical treatment be subjected
to the sumptuary penalties prescribed by the
Act. This is an unwarranted curtailment of
judicial powers.

(b) It revokes the applicability of the
parole laws and thus requires abandonment of
all hope of rehabilitation or future useful-
ness even of the young offender who may un~
wittingly have used a marihuana cigarette.
Obviously this is an unjustified infringe-~
ment upon the powers of the executive with
no counterpart in any other Federal statute
not excluding treason, kidnapping, sabotage
or any other Federal offense,

/ 2, It dishonors our civilization by invoking the

/ death penalty for a crime that is far less heinous
/ than the few where this supreme penalty is author-
| ized, Moreover, the definition of the offense of

j selling heroin to a juvenile is so broad that it
/ might sweep within its catch«all provisions minor
and incidental offenders as for instance one who
"dispenses" heroin unlawfully brought into the
United States. The sale for instance of an
*addict-pusher" eighteen years of age (of whom
there are estimated to be between three and five
-~ 2 =

thousand) to a fellow addict who is seventeen years
of age would be subjected to the death penalty. If
this law were actually implemented and juries were
pressured into recommending the death penalty it
would bring on wholesale hangings and electrocutions |
unparalleled in the world since 72,000 persons were
hung in the reign of Henry VIII.

| This and all other provisions of the Act will
- bear most heavily upon the disadvantaged, the
feeble-minded, the psychopathic, the Negro, the
Mexican, the Puerto Rican and those of oriental
extraction, particularly in Hawaii and our Pacific
territories, : |

8. The Act has many “ex post facto" aspects. It
makes (Sec, 7287-C) offenders convicted prior to
its passage subject to its provisions as second or
subsequent offenders. It amends the Immigration
Act in several respects so as to speed deportation
: — Temeves een the present protections in the

4, It attempts to validate several extremely con-
troversial methods of law-enforcement including
granting of immunity to witnesses, issuance of
search warrants at any time night or day requires
that an "addict" register when departing or return-
ing from the country without defining an addict or
taking into account this might violate the self-in-
criminating clause of the Constitution,

5. It imposes on several ageneies of the Govern-
ment duties they probably do not have the funds or
personnel to carry out.

(a) The Immigration Service is required to
register and issue certificates to departing and
returning “narcotic addicts" and convicted nar-
coticviolators, This will impose a considerable
task particularly on the Mexican border, |

(b) All Federal agencies including emeeaney
the F.B.I. would be expected to make availaltie the
names and identification of all persons who are
"rnown to be narcotic addicts or convicted narcotic
law violators", This apparently would apply not
only to Federal narcotic law violators but state

law violators as well -« probably as many as 60,000.
Here again no definition of who is a narcotic addict.
— a

(c) Require the Bureau of Prisons to expand
greatly its "Facilities to take care of narcotic law
violators who are not now being sent to Federal pri-
sons. At present approximately 350 narcotic viola-
tors are granted probation annually. Hereafter
these would go to prison, More space would be re«
quired also since under the new law violators would
remain in prison far longer because the arbitrary
penaities require longer incarceration and the
parole statutes are yevoked, A,out 1,300 narcotic
violators are now committed panentiy to Federal
prisons and 500 to U. S. Public Health Service in-
stitutions. At present the average time served in
Federal prisons is 22 months, This average stay in
prisons would be tripled at least under the new
penalty provisions and the average number of narcotic
violators in Federal prisons would increase from
8,300 to close to 10,000,

 

   
 
 
 
   

It is to be borne in mind also that presently
from 2,000 to 2,500 violators of state narcotic
laws are sent to State prisons. Since the average
time served in state institutions for this offense
is now only 18 months there will be a tendency to
divert these cases to Federal jurisdiction which
can easily be done even under existing law. |

It seems probable also that the narcotic addicts
now going to Lexington and Ft. Worth would under the
drastic penalties be transferred to Federal prisons

—~as the existing statute requires their transfer
when they have gained the "maximum benefits of _
hospitalization", This would also greatly compli-
cate the administration of the narcotic hospitals
since almost all the committed addicts would have
no chance for parole and would therefore not cooper-
ate in efforts to bring about a "cure",

At least four new prisons housing an average
of 1,000 men each and costing approximately six
mitlion dollars each will be required te carry out
the terms of this law.

(d) Further burden the Federal: eourte with
long jury trials and other procedural matters re-
lating to search warrants, communications probiems,
appeals and reviews of the many questionable mat-
ters in the law.
fonclusion

And all of these fundamental changes in law and our
traditions respecting the treatment of offenders, equal jus-
oo separation of powers, and consideration of human values

e being made to no demonstrably worthwhile end so far as
ceatrel ef the drug traffic is concerned. They are born of
hysteria and based on littie factual information, For instance,
the Senate report mkes the absurd statement that 50 per cent
of all crimes committed in the larger cities and 25 per cent
of all reported crime are attributable to narcotic addiction.
fhat would mean that of 1,861,764 persons arrested annually
465,000 were drug addicts. Similar completely unrealistic
statements are made in the report,

The*law contains not a single sentence or clause
looking to the prevention or care of narcotic addiction which
is fundamentally a disease afflicting the underprivileged and
the economically and socially handicapped. It ail but com-
pletely abandons the approach in the law establishing the
Public Health Service hospital for treatment of drug addiction.
It is grounded on the false notion that drug addiction and the
drug traffic can be controlled through the punitive approach
rather than by cutting down the demand through sympathetic
care and treatment of the victims.

The law is bound to be a monunriental faitere is its
ultimate purpose and objective. This can be predicted from
previous efforts along the same lines. When the so-called
Boggs Act was passed in November 1951 setting long maridatory
penalties it was hailed as the answer to the drug pobilem.
According to the Committee's own report the incidence of drug
addiction has been steadily increasing. It says for instance
that new names of drug addicts are being reported at the rate
of over 1,000 per month despite the drastic mandatory penalties
already in effect,

Drug widtetien is certainly to be nigtanes and the
drug traffic is to be suppressed by every possible means,
There can be no sympathy for anyone who debauches the manhood
of America, But blind and unreasoning laws which ignore the
fundamental problems and substitute Draconian penalties for
the individualized approach merely divert efforts to get at
the root of the evil,
~5-

For these and the other reasons outlined the law
shouldbe vetoed and Congress advised of the need for further
study of the problem, the sweep of its provisions narrowed
and the inadvisability of withdrawing discretionary power |
from the judicial and executive branches of the Government,