CRIMINAL AND SOCIAL JUSTICE COMMITTEE

MANDATORY PRE-RELEASE DRUG TESTING OF FEDERAL PRISONERS

WHEREAS, The United States Conference of Mayors, after holding extensive meetings across the country including The U.S. Conference of Mayors National Forum on Drug Control in 1997, has compiled "A National Action Plan to Control Drugs"; and

WHEREAS, the Action Plan states that, "for young people especially, incarceration should focus on rehabilitation, and the availability of drug treatment is essential to this"; and

WHEREAS, a report issued by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA), entitled "Behind Bars: Substance Abuse and America’s Prison Population," found that drug and alcohol abuse and addiction are implicated in the crimes and incarceration of 80 percent -- some 1.4 million -- of the 1.7 million men and women behind bars in America; and

WHEREAS, among these 1.4 million inmates are parents of 2.4 million children, many of them minors; and

WHEREAS, from 1993 to 1996, the number of inmates needing substance abuse treatment climbed from 688,000 to 840,000, while the number of inmates in treatment hovered around 150,000 -- with much of the treatment they are receiving being inadequate according to the CASA report; and

WHEREAS, the CASA report estimates that for an additional $6,500 a year, an inmate could be given intensive treatment, education, and job training, which upon release would provide a return on investment of $68,800 in reduced criminal activity, savings on the cost of arrest, prosecution, incarceration and health care, and benefit to the economy; and

WHEREAS, the availability of illegal narcotics in prisons across the nation is a growing problem which hinders efforts to provide treatment; and

WHEREAS, a study conducted by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) of the Pennsylvania Prison Drug Testing Program has shown that a comprehensive drug strategy aimed at eliminating drug use in prisons can work. The Pennsylvania strategy includes using electronic drug-detection devices, increasing drug-sniffing dog teams, monitoring inmate telephone calls, conducting daily, random urine tests, and expanding substance abuse treatment, and has made Pennsylvania Prisons nearly 99 percent drug free according to the NIJ study; and

WHEREAS, The U.S. Conference of Mayors has adopted policy calling on the federal government to reduce the availability of drugs in prisons, provide treatment to federal prisoners, require all federal prisoners to pass a drug test prior to release, and continue to provide treatment and require testing during probation and parole; and

WHEREAS, The U.S. Conference of Mayors has adopted policy calling on the nation’s governors, who control state prison systems and receive federal funding in support of prison construction, to implement tougher controls to keep drugs out of prisons and increase the availability of treatment to meet demand, so that every prisoner, upon release, has received adequate treatment and has been tested to be drug-free, and continues to be tested and receive treatment if needed while on probation or parole; and

WHEREAS, Senator John Ashcroft (MO) has introduced the "Mandatory Pre-Release Drug Testing of Federal Prisoners Act" (S 2008) which requires that the Attorney General issue an arrest warrant for any federal prisoner who fails a mandatory drug test prior to release, and authorizes $2 million in FY 2000 to fund a special office within the Justice Department for the investigation and prosecution of prisoners for whom an arrest warrant is issued,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that The U.S. Conference of Mayors urges Congress and the Administration to support and enact mandatory pre-release drug testing of federal prisoners legislation that requires every federal prisoner to pass a drug test prior to release back into America’s cities; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the federal government must provide federal prisoners full and adequate treatment resources; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that federal prisoners should continue to be tested and receive treatment if needed while on probation or parole.