Mr. ADAMS. What are the problems involved with the bail, as to the backlog for waiting time. Can you give me any statement as to how long men are allowed out on bail now in the District Court and the Sessions Court before they are tried? I mean between arrests and trial? Mr. FLANNERY. I'll give you an example of a case to which I was appointed. Occasionally I have accepted appointment for a defendant in a criminal case. I have had such a case last year. I was appointed to that case as I recall it in July or August of last year. The defendant was in jail. I immediately filed a motion for his release on personal bond; although he had a serious criminal record he was released on personal bond and he remained on personal bond until finally I tried his case. This was about six or seven weeks ago. Mr. ADAMS. In other words he was out close to six months on personal recognizance bond? Mr. FLANNERY. Yes. They just didn't get to try the case. The District Attorney had so many other cases that I just had to wait until this particular case was ready to be tried by him. I was ready two or three weeks after my appointment. It was a relatively simple robbery case. But there was that delay and he remained on personal bond during that period. Mr. ADAMS. Do you have any particular suggestion to this Committee as to how we can better break down the backlog time? Mr. WHITENER. I think he covered that in his recommendation for more judges and more probation officers. Mr. FLANNERY. And I believe a management study of the District Court is being considered. I think certainly that would be worthwhile. Mr. ADAMS. In other words a court administrative type system perhaps can be instituted in the D.C. General Sessions Court and in the District Court as has been used elsewhere in the trial court calendar system. My last question would be, do you think that an established public defender system, and enabling legislation that would allow defense counsel and the prosecuting counsel to discuss cases for possible pleas and so on, and to then frankly admit these to the judge at the time would be helpful in reducing backlog? Mr. FLANNERY. Yes. I've always been in favor of the public defender system for this jurisdiction. It would be more efficient than the sort of haphazard system we have now of appointing busy counsel to represent them. There are many civil lawyers who are appointed to represent the defendants in criminal cases. Frankly, many of them are not qualified to try criminal cases. That is a specialized field. Those lawyers will be the first to admit it to you. Mr. WHITENER. Let me get back to our Bail Reform Act, Mr. Flannery. From the reports we get there has been no unusual violation of the duties to appear at the appointed time under the Bail Reform Act in the District of Columbia. As I understood it the bail skippers under the old set up amounted to about as many as those who have not reappeared for trial under bail reform. Is that correct? Mr. FLANNERY. I don't know whether that is correct or not. I have no figures that I could give you on that. But it might be worthwhile for this committee to inquire of the United States Attorneys on that point. I believe they keep records. Mr. WHITENER. I'm sure, as an experienced prosecutor for 11 years, you found even with good solid sureties there are many defendants who have more rabbit than human being in them as far as criminal trial appearance are concerned. Mr. FLANNERY. That's correct. Mr. WHTENER. So we may be unduly disturbed about something when we talk about the Bail Reform Act. Mr. FLANNERY. I have been somewhat disturbed while reading newspaper accounts of people who were on bond for serious offenses who committed additional serious offenses. Mr. WHITENER. You know, we've always had that. The same thing with probation. I had a letter a few days ago asking for my recommendations on a prisoner that I tried several years ago for murder in the First Degree. He committed murder in order to rob a lady of the money he needed to pay a fine in order not to have his probation revoked, he stated. I don't mean to disparage any of the judges here, I would say the same thing would be true nationwide. Many of them don't have such powers of clairvoyance that we ought to permit them to say a prisoner is likely to commit a crime the next day and that, therefore, he should not have a reasonable bail. Mr. FLANNERY. I think many more people charged with crime are on bail today than were on bail during the years I spent in the United States Attorney's office. Mr. WHITENER. Thank you, gentlemen. We have other witnesses, I believe, who want to be heard. We appreciate what you are doing in this battle and are grateful for your support for the concepts of the Omnibus crime bill. Mr. WHITENER. I believe we have Mr. Kane of the Washington Area Trucking Association. STATEMENT OF EUGENE I. KANE, PRESIDENT, WASHINGTON AREA TRUCKING ASSOCIATION Mr. KANE. Mr Chairman, and Members of the Committee, I appreciate very much the opportunity to testify before you today on a very serious matter-crime in the Washington Metropolitan area. My name is Eugene I. Kane, I am a native Washingtonian and I am Executive Vice President of Kane Transfer Company with offices and truck terminals in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. I serve, also as President of the Washington, D.C. Area Trucking Association and appear today on behalf of its members. Our Association was founded in 1933 and is presently located at 1616 P Street, N.W. We are affiliated with the American Trucking Associations, Inc. and with counterpart associations in all the states. My concern today, and the concern of our Association, is the increasing crime in the National Capital Area. I have noted that the dollar cost of crime in the District of Columbia alone exceeded $7,000,000 in 1966. This bothers me-but not nearly as much as the safety of our loved ones, our friends, our employees, and members of this community. The rights of the accused, of course, must be preserved but equally important is the right of the citizen to be adequately protected from the criminal element. One of our member companies has within the past two years suffered 12 break-ins and, in the past few months, two armed robberies: one, in which a cashier was pistol-whipped and, with a knife at his throat, forced to call another employee in to open the safe, resulted in a dollar loss of about $700; the other armed robbery resulted in a loss of $1,500. Neither of these has been solved. In my own company, we have within the past four weeks had four thefts exceeding $5,200. None of these have been solved. Upon request we will be happy to supply to this committee a list of other crimes which have taken place against members of our industry association. Recently our Association sent letters to the President of the United States, the Vice President, Members of Congress, D. C. Commissioners and public officials-more than 60 in all-which expressed our concern with the crime situation in the National Capital Area. The replies to our letters were gratifying and we are sure from these replies that this committee will take necessary steps to alleviate this situation. One letter in particular, with which we wholeheartedly agree, deserves the attention of this Committee. I have a copy of this statement and I would like to read a portion of it, and I quote: A vigorous law enforcement agency is a great deterrent to crime. The District's Police Department has long been under-staffed and neglected in our accelerating society. Adequate resources of trained manpower, modern equipment and systems are mandatory for a vital police department to meet head on the thrust of criminal activity. Crime breeds not only in the poverty of the slum ghetto nurtured by the stagnation of ignorance and deprivation of opportunity but also in the lonely climate of juvenile neglect and indulgence amid metropolitan opulence. Crime breeds and thrives where individuals abdicate their parental and civic responsibilities, where they neither respect nor teach respect for law and order or those who maintain it. Crime will be controlled only when the judicial, law enforcement and rehabilitation agencies are strengthened and individuals assume the responsibilities of citizenship as well as its privileges, End of quote. This letter is signed by the Honorable Winston Prouty, United States Senator from Vermont. I have not attempted today to touch on crime statistics existing in the National Capital area. These facts and figures are available to this Committee. Gentlemen, our industry and its individual members know you share our concern and that you will take appropriate action for the welfare of the community. Again, I thank you for allowing me to appear before you. Mr. SCHULBERG. We'll hear from you at this time. STATEMENT OF HILLIARD SCHULBERG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WASHINGTON, D.C., RETAIL LIQUOR DEALERS ASSOCIATION, INC. Mr. SCHULBERG. Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, my name is Hilliard Schulberg, I am the Executive Director of the Washington D.C. Retail Liquor Dealers Association, Inc. I am here today to implore you to move speedily on the serious crime problem currently existing in the District of Columbia. Before I go on with my remarks I should like to endorse wholeheartedly the statements of Mr. Doggett, representing the Board of Trade, and Mr. McGee, representing the Committee to Reduce Crime Now. I am closely associated with these gentlemen and am a member of the Board of Trade and also a member of that Committee, and I want to compliment them too for the presentations that they have made. The President's message to the Congress indicated clearly that we cannot afford the luxury of having crime run rampant. Every citizen, every businessman agrees with this and is ready to join the battle to stop the perpetrators of these outrages. For failing a halt in their depredations, everything that is good in our community will be destroyed. I might say, Mr. Chairman, this association last year ran newspaper ads. I think we were the first endorsing the Omnibus Crime Bill and urging its passage. We sent letters to the President, we urged the Senate approval of the Bill; we worked consistently for it and we are still working in this session of the Congress for enactment of appropriate legislation and we hope that many of the provisions of the Omnibus Crime Bill can finally become law. The Washington, D.C. Retail Liquor Dealers Association is an organization composed of individual merchants who sell alcoholic beverages for off-premises consumption. Our members are responsible citizens, active in the civic and business life of the District. We join with the rest of the community in urging the Congress to have enacted strong remedial legislation to remove this peril from our city. As the record will indicate, our merchants have suffered more from the existing reign of lawlessness than any other group in the District. We have 386 active retailers. Since 1965, there have been more than 250 holdups of liquor stores; four of our people have been murdered. There have also been countless burglaries, window-breakings, larcenies and assaults. Many of our stores can no longer obtain insurance. And I tell you gentlemen this is a most serious problem which I hope Congress in its good judgment will provide some relief perhaps by a District re-issuance corporation of some sort, like Workmen's Compensation when you can't get it from a recognized carrier, or automobile liability insurance. Business people cannot exist without insurance and its has become an awful problem with us and with other small business people. So we think you will agree with us that we have more than just an academic interest in the crime problem. We have given considerable thought to the problem; we have observed the processes of justice. We offer the following suggestions with the firm convictions that if put into practice, they will aid considerably in bringing the situation under some sort of control. THE COURTS In cases involving armed robbery, upon conviction of such charges, the sentence handed down should not be concurrent, but consecutive; a term for the robbery, followed by a term for the use of a dangerous weapon. In cases where an individual charged with a crime of violence, is a proven, frequent user of a dangerous weapon, or has a record for committing crimes of violence, he should not be released, but should be held in custody until tried. We believe that neither the Constitution nor the Criminal Rules is so categorical in its bail provisions that a repeated dangerous offender under new charges must be released pending trial, in the face of a high probability that he will commit fresh crimes of violence. And we believe the foregoing is most cogent, especially since the application of the Bail Reform Law of 1966 seems to put more criminals right back on the streets after apprehension. The President's Commission on Crime in the District of Columbia made the following comment in its report, and I quote: We believe that potential criminals will be more effectively deterred by a system characterized by omnipresent and efficient police action, vigorous prosecution of offenders and expedited judicial handling from indictment through appeal. With this we emphatically agree. THE PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE There should be more vigorous prosecutions. Prosecution should not be dropped where the Grand Jury has indicted. If the evidence is good enough to go to the Grand Jury for an indictment, and there is such indictment, the case should go to trial; let the jury decide the innocence or guilt of the defendant. THE CONGRESS The Congress should pass legislation setting stiffer mandatory sentences; should pass a "gun-restriction" law; should provide the police with a sufficient opportunity to question suspects. THE DISTRICT AUTHORITIES The police, we feel, are doing a good job with what they have to work with. Undoubtedly, the department could use more men. But getting these men is the problem. Sufficient funds, creation of an atmosphere where the police officer can work with respect, with pride in his job, are necessary. Our governing authorities, therefore, must stop being so prone to government by petition by pressure groups. They must return to government for all of the people, not for a few of the people. And finally, a long-range program of education, slum-clearance and the eradication of poverty must be developed. But if we are to reach this long-range program, we must have the short-range program alluded hereto. If we do not, all we will have is chaos and further lawlessness. Gentlemen, the studies have been made; the record is in. The time for action is now. Gentlemen of the Committee, we respectfully request you use every power available to your high offices to rid us of this dangerous malignancy. Mr. WHITENER. Thank you very much, Mr. Schulberg. We appreciate your statement. Now, we'll hear from Mr. William Everngam, Jr., Executive Vice President, Washington Board of Realtors. |