NCJ Number
80786
Journal
Security Management Volume: 26 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1982) Pages: 66-68,70
Date Published
1982
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Some of the more controversial recommendations of the Attorney General's Task Force on Violent Crime, appointed by the Reagan administration to recommend solutions to rising crime rates, are discussed.
Abstract
The task force maintains that prison overcrowding is the major problem in correctional facilities. The centerpiece of the report calls for $2 billion to be spent over 4 years for the construction of State prisons. Administration aides say this proposal is too costly and violates the President's policy of giving responsibility for financing back to the States. The task force suggests that the Government fund several crime-related studies, including a statistical study on arson. Aside from the fact that the Reagan administration is not likely to spend money in research areas, this recommendation has been criticized as an attempt to resurrect LEAA. The task force also endorses the establishment of an Interstate Identification Index within the purview of the FBI. The index would improve the fingerprint identification assistance already provided to those States that request it and would coordinate an exchange of criminal records throughout the country. While the index has won wide support from State officials and the U.S. Attorney General, private security representatives are cool toward the proposal, since the FBI will only check records for public law enforcement agencies. The task force proposes steps to control handguns and semiautomatic weapons, along with a mandatory sentence for the use of firearms in a crime. While there is strong support for the mandatory sentence, there is significant opposition to the gun control proposal. The task force asks for a softening of the exclusionary rule banning the admission of evidence obtained illegally and easing of the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. Both of these proposals are criticized by civil libertarians. The task force's failure to address domestic terrorism and organized crime has also been criticized.