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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 12, 2005
SCHUMER PRESSES JUSTICE DEPT TO KEEP HERALDED REHAB PROGRAM
FOR FIRST-TIME NON-VIOLENT OFFENDERS
Justice Department has decided to eliminate well-received program
aimed at helping young non-violent convicts get on the right track
and avoid a life of crime
Schumer: The program is an effective tool to fight crime by
helping potential criminals clean themselves up before they get
on the wrong track
US Senator Charles Schumer today pressed the federal Justice Department
to keep in place a shock incarceration program that helps first-time
offenders avoid lives of crime by helping them clean themselves
up and make better decisions. Schumer said that eliminating the
program could be devastating because it helps get young people on
the right track and forsake a potential life of crime.
"Keeping the streets safe is vital to ensure that our families
get the quality of life they deserve – and one of the best
ways to do that is to help people in trouble make the right choices,"
Schumer said. "This program gives young people taking their
first steps down the wrong track a chance to get headed in the right
direction by leading a crime-free life. It would be a shame to eliminate
this program and I hope the Justice Department strongly reconsiders
doing so. There are many effective ways to fight crime and this
program is an important one of them."
The Federal Intensive Confinement Program is aimed for younger,
nonviolent, first-time convicts who face no more than 30 months
in federal prison. Those who qualify spend six months in an intensive
"boot camp" that provides strict discipline, job training
and counseling, followed by time in a community halfway house and
home confinement. According to published reports, a US Bureau of
Prisons spokeswoman said that the 14-year-old Intensive Confinement
Program will be discontinued. In addition, court officials in Buffalo
have been told not to seek shock incarceration for any more defendants.
Schumer said that the program has received wide acclaim in New York,
including from District Judge William M. Skretny to many others
with lifetime involvement and experience in the New York criminal
justice system. To avert the elimination of the program, the senator
today urged the Attorney General to reconsider such a decision.
"I write to you today in order to urge you to reverse your
decision to eliminate the Federal Intensive Confinement Program,"
Schumer wrote today to US Attorney General John Ashcroft. "This
program has a fourteen year history of successfully turning around
troubled youth who are on the road to a life of crime. We should
not surrender one of our most useful tools for stopping young, non-violent
offenders from becoming hardened criminals. I strongly urge you
to reconsider your decision."
In Buffalo, roughly 1 percent of those sentenced each year are put
into the program. Judges make recommendations for the program at
sentencing, but the prisons bureau ultimately makes such decisions.
In Buffalo, most of those recommended for the program are low-level
drug dealers or couriers with no record of violence. The US Department
of Justice oversees the Bureau of Prisons.
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