NCJ Number
138032
Date Published
1992
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This study reviewed the implementation of section 5301 of the 1988 Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which gives Federal and State court judges the discretion to impose sentences that would make convicted drug offenders ineligible to receive certain Federal benefits.
Abstract
The responsibility for implementing these sentences resides with the Federal agencies responsible for administering the benefits covered by section 5301. These benefits include all types of Federal contracts and over 400 Federal grants, licenses, and loans. Excluded are veterans, social security, and welfare benefits. This study assessed the status of Federal and State court and Federal agency efforts to deny convicted drug offenders access to Federal benefits and examined data to determine the impact that benefit denial has had on drug offenders. It also obtained data on the possible effects of making benefit denial a mandatory sanction for any drug offense. The study found that through June 1991, the first 9 months the guidelines were in effect, less than 1 percent of all drug offenders convicted during that period were given a sentence that included Federal benefit ineligibility. It is unlikely that there will be widespread withholding of Federal benefits from drug offenders in spite of the Justice Department's efforts to increase the use of such a sentence. This is due to the views held by judges and other criminal justice officials; the accepted court practice of excluding first-time offenders from such a sentence; and Federal benefit administration policies and practices, such as those that preclude the interruption or termination of ongoing benefits. Amendment of the act to make denial of Federal benefits mandatory for drug offenders would not be cost-effective, since many of the offenders denied access to Federal benefits would also be sentenced to prison terms that exceed the benefit ineligibility period. Increased administrative costs would still be incurred, however. 12 tables