Statement Outlining a 13-Point Program for Reform of the Federal Corrections System.

NINETEEN out of every twenty persons who are sent to prison eventually return to society. What happens to them while . they are in confinement is a tremendously important question for our country.

Are they effectively rehabilitated? In some instances, the answer is yes. But in an appalling number of cases, our correctional institutions are failing.

According to recent studies, some 40 percent of those who are released from confinement later return to prison. Or, to put it another way, a sizable proportion of serious crimes are committed by persons who have already served a jail sentence. Eight out of every ten offenders sampled in a recent FBI study had at least one prior arrest and seven out of ten had a prior conviction. Of those charged with burglary, auto theft, or armed robbery, between 60 and 70 percent had been arrested two or more times in the preceding 7 years.

For youthful offenders, the picture is even darker. The repeater rates are greater among persons under 20 than over and there is evidence that our institutions actually compound crime problems by bringing young delinquents into contact with experienced criminals.

A nation as resourceful as ours should not tolerate a record of such futility in its correctional institutions. Clearly, our rehabilitative programs require immediate and dramatic reform. As a first step in that reform, I have today issued a broad directive to the Attorney General, asking him to take action to improve our correctional efforts in 13 specific ways. He will report to me on his progress after 6 months and will at that time make such further recommendations as he believes are necessary.

The primary purpose of my directive is to improve the Federal corrections system. If this goal can be speedily accomplished, then the Federal system can serve as a model for State and local reforms. The Federal Government will make every effort to help the States and localities make needed improvements, providing them with information, technical aid, and funds. We will also encourage greater cooperation and coordination between government and the private sector and among all the various units of government. I have specifically asked that our rehabilitative programs give greater attention to the special problems of distinct categories of offenders, such as juveniles, women, narcotics and alcoholic addicts, the mentally ill, and hard-core criminals. Closely supervised parole, work-release, and probationary projects should be accelerated, as should our basic research into rehabilitative methods.

THIRTEEN-POINT PROGRAM

The 13 specific concerns of my directive are as follows:

1. To end the crisis-oriented, stopgap nature of most reform efforts, I have asked the Attorney General to develop a 10-year plan for reforming our correctional activities.

2. I have directed that explorations begin on the feasibility of pooling the limited resources of several governmental units in order to set up specialized treatment facilities. Several counties within a State or several States can often accomplish together what none of them could accomplish alone. Regional cooperation could be especially helpful in dealing with women offenders who are so few in number that their treatment in local institutions is often inefficient and inadequate, with hard-core criminals who require close supervision and particularly secure quarters, and with the mentally ill and narcotics and alcoholic addicts who need extensive medical treatment.

3. It is a tragic fact that juveniles comprise nearly a third of all offenders who are presently receiving correctional treatment and that persons under the age of 25 comprise half of that total. Yet our treatment facilities are least adequate for these same age groups. This is the reason that so many young offenders are thrown in with older criminals. I have asked the Attorney General to give special emphasis to programs for juvenile offenders--including group homes, modern diagnostic and treatment centers, and new probation mechanisms. This effort should be closely coordinated with the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

4. We must expedite the design and construction of the long-planned Federal psychiatric study and treatment facility for mentally disturbed and violent offenders. Since the late 1950's, this project has been delayed by a series of administrative problems. It should be delayed no longer, for our understanding of mentally disturbed offenders is distressingly inadequate.

5. Federal law, like many State laws, has never been adequately concerned with the problem of the mental incompetent who is accused of a crime, sentenced for a crime, or found innocent because of his mental condition. I do not believe, for example, that present law adequately protects the civil rights of the accused mental incompetent. Nor does the disposition of such cases always give adequate protection to society. We need a comprehensive study of this matter, one which takes up both the constitutional and the medical problems involved. A new law should be drafted which could not only serve the Federal jurisdiction but which might aid State authorities who have similar problems.

6. A great number of existing city and county jails are antiquated and overcrowded. Correctional experts believe that the local jail concept should be replaced with a comprehensive, community oriented facility which would bring together a variety of detention efforts, adult and juvenile court diagnostic services, treatment programs both for those who are incarcerated and for those on supervisory release, and the half-way house concept. Pilot projects along these lines have already been designed for New York City and Chicago. They should be given the highest priority and available funds should, wherever possible, be used to encourage other centers of this sort.

7. Ninety percent of convicted criminals and accused persons held in custody are housed in State or local institutions. The Federal Government should do all it can to help the States and localities carry this burden through programs of technical and financial aid. This Federal assistance should be especially directed toward the development of parole and probation programs and other alternatives to incarceration.

8. The lack of adequate public money for Federal and State prisons suggests that we should look to the private sector for supplementary assistance. Private industry can help rehabilitate criminals in many ways, such as retraining and hiring those who have served time. Voluntary agencies and professional organizations can also help those who are released from jail, tutoring them in new skills, helping them locate jobs, advising them as they readjust to civilian society, and cooperating with the courts in their probationary programs. A number of industries and volunteer organizations have already started successful programs of this sort; their example should be used to stimulate broader private efforts.

9. An adequate corrections system is only as effective as those who run it. Unfortunately too many rehabilitative programs are staffed with untrained personnel. I am therefore asking the Department of Justice to significantly expand its existing training programs for those who work in correctional institutions, both newcomers and experienced employees. The Justice Department's informal efforts to disseminate information should also be expanded.

10. I have asked the Attorney General to establish a task force which will make recommendations concerning a unified Federal corrections system. The various stages of rehabilitation are often poorly coordinated at present. The offender cannot proceed in an orderly manner from confinement to work-release to release under supervision and finally to an unsupervised release. The unification of the various programs involved could bring to this process the coordination and sense of progression it badly needs.

11. Our experience with so-called "half-way houses," institutions which offer a mediating experience between prison and complete return to society, has been most successful to this point. The per capita cost of operating half-way houses is not significantly higher than that of maintaining a man in prison, and the rate of recidivism among those who leave half-way houses is lower than among those who return directly to society after confinement. I am asking the Attorney General to prepare legislation which would expand the half-way house program to include a greater number of convicted offenders, specifically, those on parole and probation who cannot participate in the program at present. The Department of Justice will also assist States and localities in establishing and expanding half-way house projects.

12. Many correctional programs are based more on tradition and assumption than on theories which have been scientifically tested. Few of our programs have been closely studied to see just what results they bring. Clearly the poor record of our rehabilitative efforts indicates that we are doing something wrong and that we need extended research both on existing programs and on suggested new methods. I have asked the Attorney General to marshal the combined resources of the Department of Justice in a major new research effort.

13. Correctional programs have proliferated in recent years with little or no effort at consolidation or coordination. Among the Federal agencies presently involved in correctional activities are the Bureau of Prisons, the Board of Parole, the Office of the Pardon Attorney, and the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration-all at the Department of Justice. Also involved are the Social and Rehabilitation Service, the Office of Education, and the Public Health Service of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The Manpower Administration of the Department of Labor and the Office of Economic Opportunity also play major roles.

If all of these efforts are to be effectively coordinated then some one authority must do the coordinating. I have asked the Attorney General to take on that assignment.

A WORD TO THE CONCERNED CITIZEN

Many millions of words have been written about the crime crisis in our country. Surely it is among the most severe domestic crises of our times. Its successful solution will require the best efforts of the government at every level and the full cooperation of our citizens in every community.

One of the areas where citizen cooperation is most needed is in the rehabilitation of the convicted criminal. Men and women who are released from prison must be given a fair opportunity to prove themselves as they return to society. We will not insure our domestic tranquility by keeping them at arm's length. If we turn our back on the ex-convict, then we should not be surprised if he again turns his back on us.

None of our vocational education programs, our work-release efforts, our halfway houses, or our probation and parole systems will succeed if the community to which an offender returns is unwilling to extend a new opportunity. Unions, civic groups, service clubs, labor organizations, churches, and employers in all fields can do a great deal to fight crime by extending a fair chance to those who want to leave their criminal records behind them and become full and productive members of society.