Phillips, Orie L.

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Proposed Federal Corrections Act

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PROPOSED FEDERAL CORRECTIONS ACTORI- L. PHILLIPS*A Committee on Punishment for Crime' of the Conference of Senior CircuitJudges, at the last meeting of the Conference held in Washington, September 29 toOctober 2, I942, submitted a report and a proposed act to provide a correctionalsystem for adult and youthful offenders convicted in courts of the United States. TheConference adopted the report and urged the passage of the bill proposed therein.Under the proposed act a Board of Corrections2 is to be created in the Departmentof Justice, consisting of ten members appointed by the Attorney General. The termsof the members first appointed are to be staggered. Their successors are to be ap-pointed for terms of six years. One member is to be designated by the AttorneyGeneral to act as chairman.The Board is to comprise a Division on Adult Corrections,3 a Youth AuthorityDivision,4 and a Policy Division. Members of the Division and the Authority are tobe designated by the chairman. In order to afford flexibility, the chairman from timeto time may assign one or more members of the Division to serve also on the Author-ity and one or more members of the Authority to serve also on the Division.Two members of the Board, one designated by the Division and one designatedby the Authority, and the Director of the Bureau of Prisons3 are to constitute thePolicy Division.The Policy Division is to hold stated meetings to consider problems of treatmentand correction and lay down general treatment and correctional policies to be carriedout by the Director. A chief parole officer is to be appointed by the Attorney Generalwho shall administer the parole system and the supervision of youth offenders onconditional release in accordance with general policies laid down by the PolicyDivision.* 1903-1904, Knox College; J.D., 19o8, LL.D., x935, University of Michigan; Dr. Engineering (hon.),1940, Colorado School of Mines. Member of the New Mexico Bar. Judge of the United States Court ofAppeals for the Tenth Judicial Circuit, since z929; United States District Judge, District of New Mexico,r923-1929. Visiting Professor of Law, Northwestern University, summers of 1936 and 1937, Universityof Michigan, summer of 1938. Member of the Council of the American Law Institute.' The Committee was comprised of Circuit Judges John J. Parker (chairman), Learned Hand, and OrleL. Phillips, and District Judges Carroll C. Hincks, John C. Collet, Paul J. McCormick, and Bolitha J.Laws. The Committee created a' Subcommittee on Sentencing of Adult Offenders, comprising JudgesLaws (chairman), Hand, and McCormick, and a Subcommittee on Treatment of Youthful Offenders,comprising Judges Phillips (chairman), Hincks, and Collet.' Hereinafter called the Board. ' Hereinafter called the Division.' Hereinafter called the Authority. ' Hereinafter called the Director.PRoposED FEDEAL CORREI'ONS AcT 651The Board is authorized to adopt and promulgate rules and regulations necessaryto effectuate the purposes of the act.The powers of the District Judge to place an offender on probation are in nowisedisturbed by the act.A youth offender is defined as a male person under the age of 24 years at the timeof conviction.If the court shall find that a convicted person is a youth offender and the offenseis punishable by imprisonment, the court may, as a penalty for the offense and in lieuof the penalty otherwise provided by law, sentence the youth offender to the custodyof the Authority for treatment and supervision until discharged as provided in theact. If the court shall find that the youth offender does not need treatment, he maysuspend the imposition or execution of sentence and place the youth offender onprobation. If the court shall find the youth offender will not derive benefits from thetreatment and should not be committed to the Authority, he may sentence the youthoffender under any other applicable penalty provision, but when the sentence is toimprisonment for a term of more than one year, the sentence must be imposedpursuant to the provisions of Tide II of the act dealing with the sentencing of adultoffenders.Youth offenders committed to the Authority shall undergo treatment in institu-tions of maximum, medium, or minimum security types, including training schools,hospitals, farms, forestry and other camps that will provide the essential varieties oftreatment. Treatment is defined in the act as corrective and preventive training andtreatment designed to protect the public by correcting the antisocial tendencies ofyouth offenders.Classification centers and agencies are to be set up by the Director. Youthoffenders committed to the Authority will be sent first to a classification center, wherethe agency will make a complete study of each youth offender, including a mentaland physical examination, to ascertain his personal traits, his capacities, pertinentcircumstances of his school, family life, any previous delinquency or criminal expe-rience, and any mental or physical defect or other factor contributing to his delin-quency. The agency will then forward to the Authority a report of its findings withrespect to the youth offender and its recommendation as to his disposition.On receipt of such report and recommendation, the Authority will make an order(i) permitting the youth offender to remain at liberty conditionally under super-vision, or (2) allocate and direct the transfer of the youth offender to an agency orinstitution for treatment, or (3) order the youth offender confined under such condi-tions as it believes best designed for the protection of the public.The Authority may at any time release conditionally under supervision a youthoffender committed to it and may discharge him unconditionally at the expiration ofone year from the conditional release. A youth offender committed to the Authoritymust be released conditionally under supervision on or before the expiration of four652 LAW AND CONTE.MPORARY PROBLEMSyears from the date of his conviction and must be discharged unconditionally on orbefore the expiration of six years from the date of his conviction.Youth offenders permitted to remain at liberty or conditionally released untilunconditionally discharged are to be under the supervision of United States probationofficers, supervisory agents appointed by the chief parole officer, and voluntary super-visory agents approved by the chief parole officer. The Board is authorized to en-courage the formation of voluntary organizations composed of members who willserve without compensation as voluntary supervisory agents. The powers and dutiesof voluntary supervisory agents are to be limited and defined by regulations adoptedby -the Board.Upon the unconditional discharge by the Authority of a youth offender beforethe expiration of six years from the date of his conviction, the conviction shall beautomatically set aside and held for naught, and the Authority will issue to theyouth offender a certificate to that effect. The purpose of the last-mentioned provisionis to reward the youth for good conduct and favorable reaction to treatment, and toaid him to adjust himself into society upon discharge.Under Title II of the act, where the judge after a hearing, determines that asentence of imprisonment for more than one year should be imposed on an offender,he will impose an original sentence to imprisonment generally, which shall be for themaximum term prescribed by law. The court may determine whether sentences ondifferent counts or different indictments shall run concurrently or consecutively.Within six months after an offender commences to serve the original sentence, theDivision will recommend to the court the term of imprisonment to be fixed by thedifferent sentences, stating the reasons therefor. The judge will then fix the definitesentence. If the judge fixes a definite sentence which is different from that recom-mended by the Division he will state his reasons in writing. In determining termsof imprisonment to be recommended'by it, the Division will consider all pertinentinformation and, before making the report and recommendation, one member willpersonally interview the offender, and he will be afforded a hearing before one ormore members of the Division.Adult offenders and youth offenders not sentenced to the Authority who are sen-tenced to imprisonmient for one year or less are to be committed to institutions,camps, or farms of medium or minimum security, separated, in so far as practical,from other penal and correctional institutions.The report of the Subcommittee on Treatment of Youthful Offenders0 reads:Our studies of reliable statistics demonstrate that the period in life between 16 and 23is a focal source of crime. It is during this period that large numbers of habitual criminalsare spawned. Persons between the ages of i6 and 21 constitute approximately 13 per centof our population. They are responsible for approximately 26 per cent of our robberies,in excess of 40 per cent of our burglaries, and nearly 5o per cent of our automobile thefts.,[1 The Criminality of Youth, Thorsten Sellin, p. 31.] Young men in the age group be-'Report of Subcommittee on Treatment of Youthful Offenders, REPORT To THE JuDictAL CONFERENCEOF THE COMMInME ON PUNISHMENT FOR CRIME (94) 31, 32, 33.PROPOSED FEDERAL CORRECTIONS AcT 653tween 17 and 2o, inclusive, are arrested for major crimes in greater numbers than personsof any other 4-year group. They are arrested for serious crimes twice as often as adults from35 to 39, inclusive, three times as often as those from 45 to 49, inclusive, and five times asoften as those from 50 to 59, inclusive. Nineteen-year-olds offend more frequently thanpersons of any other age. Eighteen-year-olds come next. Moreover, the proportion ofyouths less than 2.i in the whole number of persons arrested is increasing at an alarmingrate.2 [2 The Criminality of Youth, Thorsten Sellin, pp. 37-55-] This tremendous upsurgeof criminality during the youth period is a startling social phenomenon.3 [3 See CriminalYouth and the Borstal System, Healy and Alper, pp. 5-io; Youth in the Toils, Harrisonand Grant, pp. 44-48.]In 1941, there were 33,429 persons convicted of Federal offenses. Of these, 7,393, or22.1 per cent, were under 24 years of age. Of the youthful offenders, 1,153 were underx8 years of age, 2,804 were in the age group i8 to 20, inclusive, i,xio were 21, 1,147 were22, and 1,179 were 23 years of age.Thirty-seven and one-half per cent of the violators of the Motor Vehicle Theft Actwere youthful offenders. Violations of that act constituted 57-9 per cent of all Federaloffenders in 1941....It would seem from the foregoing that we must wisely concentrate our efforts toprevent crime upon the offenders in the age group between x6 and 23, if we are to makeprogress in the solution of our crime problem.Sociologists and psychiatrists tell us that special causations, which occur in the periodbetween adolescence and manhood, produce these antisocial conduct trends....Again, reliable statistics demonstrate with reasonable certainty that existing methodsof treatment of criminally-inclined youths are not solving the problem. A large percentageof those released from our reformatories and penal institutions return to antisocial conductand ultimately become hardened and habitual criminals ....The underlying theory of the provisions for treatment of youth offenders is tosubstitute for retributive punishment, methods of training and treatment designed tocorrect and prevent criminal tendencies. The plan of the act departs from the merelypunitive idea of dealing with youthful offenders and looks primarily to the objectiveidea of rehabilitation. It will be observed that youth offenders are to be segregatedfrom other offenders and that classes of youth offenders are to be segregated fromother classes of such offenders, and that each youth offender is to be allocated to atreatment agency or institution best calculated to effect his rehabilitation.The practicality and desirability of such a system of corrective treatment andtraining has been demonstrated by the Borstal System in England which started withan experimentation in a wing of Bedford Prison and now embraces ii institutions,five of which are walled and four of which are completely open.7With respect to adult offenders, the definite sentence is to be fixed in the light ofinformation obtained by penal experts from a study of the offender over a substantialperiod after his conviction, supplemented by the pre-sentence report of probationofficers and other information. It should result in more scientific sentencing and'For a more detailed statement respecting the Borstal system, see Report of Subcommittee on Treat-ment of Youthful Offenders, REaoRr, supra note 6, at 36-39; Tolman, The Borstal System, id. App. H1,pP. 53-70.LAW AND CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMSshould largely eliminate shocking disparities that from time to time occur in thesentencing of adult offenders under like facts and circumstances.The Committee has also recommended a separate act providing that any personarrested for an offense against the United States, subject to the approval of the courthaving jurisdiction over the person and the offense, may in writing waive indictmentby grand jury and consent to be charged by information, and may enter a plea ofguilty to the information, or consent to a trial upon the information before the courtwithout a jury. The purpose of this act is to permit persons desirous of pleadingguilty or waiving trial by jury, to do so without being subjected to the contaminatinginfluence of confinement in jails awaiting return of indictments by grand juries andtrials by petit juries.The proposed act, in my opinion, will provide an integrated and coordinated cor-rectional system. It will provide for a more adequate and effective supervision ofparolees and youth offenders under conditional discharge. It will make possiblebetter sentencing in cases of adult offenders and effect the rehabilitation of a largeproportion of youth offenders. It is the result of a most thorough and comprehensivestudy of the whole subject by the Committee which is reflected in its report, copiesof which may be obtained from the Director of the Administrative Office of theUnited States Courts, Supreme Court Building, Washington, D. C.If the proposed act is enacted into law, the result, in my judgment, will be a greatforward step in criminal justice under the federal system.

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Proposed Federal Corrections Act

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