NCJ Number
78548
Date Published
1981
Length
105 pages
Annotation
Task force recommendations focus on the appropriate role of the Federal government in combatting violent crime both within existing substantive and jurisdictional frameworks (Phase I recommendations) and through changes in Federal criminal statutes, funding levels, and allocation of Federal resources (Phase II recommendations).
Abstract
An outline and a commentary accompany each of the 64 recommendations listed. Among the Phase I recommendations are that the Attorney General should request the Navy to assist in detecting air and sea drug traffic, that he should mandate the United States Attorneys to establish law enforcement coordinating committees in each Federal district, and that he work with appropriate governmental authorities to make available abandoned military bases for use by states and localities as correctional facilities. Further, it is proposed that the Attorney General take the leadership role in ensuring that crime victims are accorded proper status by the criminal justice system and that the FBI establish the Interstate Identification Index (a decentralized system under which the states would retain criminal history records for persons arrested in their states and the FBI's National Crime Informaton Center (NCIC) would maintain an index for these records). Phase II recommendations address reforms in the areas of narcotics, gun laws, crimes against Federal officials, arson, tax cases, the Freedom of Information Act, bail, the exclusionary rule, sentencing and parole, training of state and local personnel, victim compensation, youth gangs, exchange of criminal history information, and Federal funding for criminal justice programs. An appendix lists witnesses appearing before the Task Force. In developing the recommendations, the Task Force relied on several information sources: public testimony in 7 cities by nearly 80 witnesses representing a broad spectrum of expertise in the criminal justice system; written testimony by criminal justice experts, scholars, and the general public; research into specific issue areas; and personal experience.