1 1 2 3 4 5 6 ADDRESS TO THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION 7 CRIMINAL JUSTICE SECTION 8 U. S. ATTORNEY GENERAL JANET RENO 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Fairmont Hotel 16 Grand Ballroom 17 Saturday, August 2, 1997 18 1:22 p.m. 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 2 1 MS. RENO: Mr. Chief Justice, Bill, 2 Ron, thank you so much for the invitation to be 3 here today. Bob, thank you for being here 4 today, for that introduction and for your 5 friendship over the years. 6 I look at this room as I looked about 7 when I spoke to you four years ago, and I see 8 so many people from my past. If Neal Sonnett 9 had ran against me in 1978, I wouldn't be here 10 because he would have been elected. But Neal 11 Sonnett didn't run against me. And he has been 12 a fierce and gallant adversary and a wonderful 13 friend. 14 I see so many other people in this 15 room who have been part of my life. Barbara 16 and I worked together. And it makes you 17 realize how small this world is. And now to 18 see the new friends that I have made at the 19 Department of Justice. 20 I will tell you that I have a special 21 mission while I'm Attorney General and when I 22 leave this office. And that is to let the 23 people of the United States know how many 24 dedicated men and women work with them and for 25 them in the Department of Justice. 3 1 When you see people there at eleven 2 o'clock at night, or when you come in early in 3 the morning and find that they've been there 4 until two o'clock in the morning to have 5 something ready for you at the Command Center, 6 and when you watch them go up to testify before 7 Congressional committees, they do it year-in 8 and they do it year-out. And they do it with 9 such extraordinary excellence. And so I feel 10 like I'm much enlarged and enhanced after this 11 time four years ago. 12 I see especially Laurie Robinson. 13 We've worked together in different lives. And, 14 if you had told us that we would be in the 15 situation we're in now, I think we would have 16 laughed. 17 But I used to come to ABA committee 18 meetings with wild ideas. And Laurie would 19 very quietly sit me down and explain the rules 20 of the ABA, and suggest a little adjustment to 21 my plan, and that perhaps it would work. 22 And in the Dash Committee or in the 23 other committees, when I wanted to do 24 something, I always found that Laurie somehow 25 or another got me calmed down, and we went in 4 1 the right direction, and it got done. And now 2 she's doing a wonderful job as head of the 3 Office of Justice Programs. And she's still 4 calming me down and showing me the right way to 5 go. 6 And so I look out over 34 years of 7 people who have been colleagues and friends and 8 adversaries and look at people who, for the 9 last four years, both from Miami and in the 10 Department of Justice have been so supportive. 11 And all I can say is the practice of law with 12 lawyers is great. 13 And it's great because, although we 14 have differed at times and will continue to 15 differ, and we advocate sometimes on different 16 sides, we are united in one common goal: To 17 build the best criminal justice system we 18 possibly can; to enforce the law, but to 19 enforce the law according to principles of due 20 process and fair play; and to secure justice, 21 not for some Americans, but for all Americans. 22 This past week I went to St. 23 Matthew's Cathedral in Washington, as did many 24 people, and I sat there and thought about 25 Justice Brennan. I listened as Justice Souter 5 1 recalled him. I only had the privilege of 2 meeting him about three times after I came to 3 Washington. But he had such a remarkable 4 quality of making you feel so very, very 5 special. He had a quality of making you feel, 6 after you had left his presence, that you 7 should go out and do more and try harder. 8 And with his passing there seemed a 9 vacuum. But quickly his presence filled that 10 vacuum, and you walked out of St. Matthew's 11 Cathedral resolved to do more and to try 12 harder. 13 And I thought about it a long time in 14 terms of what I need to do in the Department of 15 Justice, to kind of wade through the Beltway 16 fracases and look at the large issues that 17 confront us in America and in the criminal 18 justice system. 19 I'd look to talk to you about some of 20 those issues now. The first is the issue of 21 indigent defense. Lee Cooper and Judy Clarke 22 of the National Association of Criminal Defense 23 Lawyers, Bill Taylor and others have written 24 urging the Department to do more in this 25 regard. 6 1 For 15 years as a prosecutor I became 2 convinced that to achieve justice for 3 defendants, if we were going to do that, we had 4 to have adequate funding, adequate training and 5 adequate resources for indigent defendants. To 6 give people confidence in the justice system, 7 we had to have adequate funding, adequate 8 training and adequate resources for indigent 9 defenses. 10 If we did not, people would say, 11 "Look, in this country you know you can only 12 get justice if you're rich, or if you can pay 13 for a lawyer." And that's not justice, and 14 that does not give people confidence in the 15 system. 16 And to ensure effective law 17 enforcement, we need to have an indigence 18 defendant system that functions properly to 19 prevent continuances, to prevent delay and the 20 frustration of reversals on appeal. 21 Now I was spoiled by Bennett Brummer. 22 I think I've gotten madder at Bennett Brummer 23 than almost anybody I know. He has made me 24 frustrated and angry, but I have been blessed 25 and spoiled by the excellence and the vigor of 7 1 the public defenders in his office. 2 I have, at the same time, seen him 3 battling for sorely needed resources, and I 4 have understood the frustrations that he faced. 5 But my first exposure outside the Eleventh 6 Judicial Circuit in Florida was during my time 7 on the DASH Committee. And the public hearings 8 that we held across the country illuminated my 9 understanding of what the systems were like 10 around the country. And I suddenly realized we 11 had it real good in Miami. 12 There were jurisdictions where little 13 thought was given to indigent defense, where 14 little thought was given to funding issues. 15 And in these last four years, in my 16 opportunities to visit around the country, I 17 have seen an even greater problem in terms of 18 the quality and the strength of resources for 19 indigent defense. 20 And, thus, I would like to work with 21 you to address how we can, together, begin to 22 ensure that all Americans have appropriate 23 defenses. I think we can begin by looking at 24 the language. 25 And, frankly, it's at this point 8 1 confused, but there is language providing for 2 caps in the appropriation bill. And we need to 3 look at that and work through those issues in 4 this month before Congress comes back, to 5 educate all as to the provisions, and to their 6 impact, and to do everything we can to ensure 7 that, particularly in federal capital cases, 8 there be appropriate and vigorous defense. 9 Early this fall, the Department, 10 through the Office of Justice Programs, will 11 convene a small group, which will include 12 members of the defense bar and other 13 knowledgeable persons so that we can discuss 14 what steps we can take to help improve the 15 quality and the availability of indigent legal 16 defense services. 17 We also need hard data about indigent 18 defense. For that reason our Bureaus of 19 Justice Statistics and Justice Assistance are 20 launching this year the first national level 21 data collection since the early 1980s to 22 document the provision of indigent defense 23 services at the state and local level. 24 In these discussions, I think it is 25 important for us to consider first how we 9 1 educate state legislators and Congress in 2 understanding the critical need for appropriate 3 indigent defense services, how we explain not 4 only the cause of justice, but the impact that 5 inadequate services have on the whole criminal 6 justice system and law enforcement. 7 Just remind them of the victim that's 8 hollering and screaming at me, because they 9 can't get the case to trial, my prosecutors 10 can't get the case to trial, because the public 11 defender doesn't have enough time because the 12 public defender has a totally unreasonable 13 caseload. 14 But we've got to do more than that. 15 We have got to discuss what staffing standards 16 should exist. I have been before too many 17 legislative committees that have said, "Okay, 18 we want to help you, but what is the 19 appropriate standard?" 20 Too often we seem to use pie-in-the- 21 sky standards. We've got to develop balanced 22 standards that can give some indication to the 23 appropriators as to what is a realistic level 24 that can be achieved. 25 We've got to develop some 10 1 understanding as to the balance between 2 prosecutors and defenders. Too often the 3 prosecutors and defenders are involved in an 4 attack, a financial attack, on the same pot of 5 money, and there doesn't seem to be any rhyme 6 or reason that governs their attack, because 7 they are both in such desperate need. 8 If we can develop an appropriate 9 balance in understanding the functions of the 10 office, we can make a difference, I think, in 11 our efforts. 12 I think we've got to explore the 13 whole issue of training, how we train all 14 involved. And we must consider the issue of 15 joint training. I've found from my prosecutors 16 in Miami that some of their best training 17 experiences were at the University of Florida, 18 were public defenders and prosecutors trained 19 together. And I think we can learn so much 20 from that initiative. 21 I look at the many, many wonderful 22 lawyers in private practice, some of them civil 23 lawyers, who have never walked into a criminal 24 justice courtroom, some of them like my friend 25 Sandy D'Alembert who, when he decided he might 11 1 learn what the criminal justice system was all 2 about, in his first jury trial asked a 3 prospective juror what would happen if the 4 defendant took the Fifth. He then went off to 5 be president of the ABA and I hope it helped 6 him. 7 But if we develop appropriate 8 training programs and support programs, we can 9 provide so much more resources for the system 10 through lawyers who are more than willing to 11 give of their time but are afraid to give it 12 because they are afraid they are going to make 13 some dumb mistake. 14 I think one of the great issues that 15 we have got to talk about when we talk about 16 indigent defense is resources. When I look at 17 the developing technology and the developing 18 science, whether it be with respect to the use 19 of DNA, whether it be new forensic 20 developments, we have got to include in the 21 equation of adequate indigent defense funding a 22 provision for resources and expertise and 23 knowledge that defense lawyers throughout this 24 country can draw upon. (Applause.) 25 Let's translate it, though. Let's 12 1 not only point it out, but point out that when 2 they don't have it, and then it gets reversed 3 or justice is not done and somebody gets 4 convicted when they are innocent, what the 5 difference can mean with a defense lawyer who 6 has appropriate knowledge at his hand and what 7 they can do to make a difference in securing 8 justice. 9 In short we shouldn't be playing the 10 "Gotcha" game when we talk about liberty and 11 life. We should be talking about how we work 12 together as respectful, as civil adversaries to 13 ensure justice for all. 14 And I think that requires that we be 15 a bit candid. Prosecutors are in this with 16 you. And sometimes we have seen, from our 17 perspective, a great public defender and then a 18 court-appointed lawyer who is just opening his 19 office or her office and who is depending on 20 court appointments, but is busy getting the 21 office staffed and pleads the client and turns 22 and goes on to another case. 23 Somehow or another we have got to 24 work together to ensure the best in criminal 25 defense and to ensure that conflict standards 13 1 are understood and accepted as part of the 2 whole appropriations process and that people 3 use the criminal justice system the right way: 4 Not to cause a police officer to come in three 5 times when one time would be sufficient for a 6 deposition; not to cause the system harassment 7 by unnecessary questions; but that we seek 8 justice in the most vigorous, professional way 9 possible, in the shortest amount of time 10 possible with the least convenience to all 11 concerned possible. 12 The legitimacy of our justice system 13 depends on our efforts to ensure the fairness 14 of the system for everyone, regardless of 15 wealth. 16 I know that so many of you have 17 worked tirelessly over the years to fulfill the 18 promise of Gideon and the guaranties of the 19 Sixth Amendment. And I salute you and I thank 20 you. And I look forward to working with you. 21 I also know that members of the 22 defense bar have concerns beyond the provision 23 of indigent defense. That's why I have tried 24 to open lines of communication between the 25 Department and members of the defense 14 1 community. 2 I know, for example, that the 3 Department has been well represented in the ABA 4 Criminal Justice Section by people such as 5 Merrick Garland, Bob Litt and Mary Harkenrider. 6 I know, too, that representatives of 7 the Criminal Justice Section, the NACDL, the 8 federal defenders and others meet regularly 9 with members of the Department's Criminal 10 Division and the Deputy Attorney General's 11 Office. 12 We have also had dialogue at the 13 local level hosted by U. S. Attorney's Offices. 14 These meetings are so very important, for they 15 help us to address issues of concern to the 16 defense community, not just on a national 17 level, but where there is a local problem. 18 I think it is essential that these 19 and other dialogues continue and expand, and to 20 help ensure that they do, I want to invite the 21 leaders of the defense bar, the Criminal 22 Justice Section, the NACDL, the federal 23 defenders, the National Legal Aid and 24 Defenders' Association and others to meet with 25 me on a regular basis to discuss issues of 15 1 concern to the defense community. And I say, 2 "Let's begin this fall." 3 I know that if we can sit down and 4 air concerns and discuss problems, we will be 5 able to work together to find solutions and to 6 achieve our common goal of a criminal justice 7 system that provides fair, firm, effective law 8 enforcement while, at the same time, ensuring 9 justice for all. 10 Another common concern we share has 11 occurred most recently over the last year or so 12 as we have seen an increase in the criticism of 13 the federal judiciary for so-called "activism," 14 accompanied by calls to curtail judicial 15 independence, to eliminate life tenure and to 16 impeach individual judges who have made 17 decisions some disagree with. 18 I want to discuss this briefly now, 19 because I will be addressing it again in more 20 detail with the House of Delegates on Tuesday. 21 But as the nation's chief law 22 enforcement officer, I am deeply disturbed by 23 this increasingly heated rhetoric. Much of the 24 current debate about so-called "judicial 25 activism" ignores the fundamental role that an 16 1 independent judiciary plays in our 2 constitutional system of government and it 3 risks undermining respect for and compliance 4 with the law. 5 Judicial independence is particularly 6 important for the criminal justice system. And 7 I say this, as one who has had my full share of 8 judicial decisions that I violently disagreed 9 with, but we must remember, as Justice Brennan 10 once noted, that "Those whom we should banish 11 from society often speak in too faint a voice 12 to be heard above society's demand for 13 punishment. It is the particular role of 14 courts to hear these words, to hear these 15 voices, for the Constitution declares that the 16 majoritarian chorus may not alone dictate the 17 conditions of social life." 18 There are two other issues in which 19 we share, among others, common cause that I 20 would like to discuss with you today. 21 The next is the whole issue of drug 22 testing, treatment and after-care programs. 23 Twenty years ago when I became a prosecutor I 24 thought that you could treat drug abuse, but I 25 was one of very few. I can't tell you how many 17 1 people would laugh at me and say, "Janet, you 2 know you can't treat drug abuse." 3 Nobody laughs at me anymore. 4 Everyone, even Congressmen, legislators, has 5 had somebody, a family member, a friend, a 6 neighbor, somebody in the workplace, who has 7 benefitted from drug treatment. It does work 8 and all America has seen it work. And now 9 we've got to do something about that knowledge. 10 One of the expensive parts of drug 11 treatment is having a place to treat people. 12 Well, the latest figures indicate anywhere from 13 50 to 75 percent of the people booked into the 14 jails of this country have a drug abuse 15 problem. And we've got a place to treat them 16 in many instances. Let's start to use it. 17 But we have seen examples of how 18 people are beginning to do it on a more 19 systematic basis. In October of 1988 the Drug 20 Court got started in Miami. It got started 21 because of a public defender that cared, a 22 prosecutor that wanted to develop the program, 23 a court that was willing to take a sabbatical 24 and come spend time to make the program work 25 and a county commission that was willing to 18 1 back it up. 2 It made me feel like things can 3 change when Laurie mentioned that at a recent 4 Drug Court conference there were hundreds of 5 people there. We have come a long way. 6 And we have found that the early 7 research on drug courts is very promising, 8 Judge. according to an evaluation of the Dade 9 County program, Drug Court defendants had far 10 lower rates of offending than a comparison 11 group and had longer periods between arrest. 12 And I think we have got to look. 13 When we are looking for indicia of success, 14 sometimes we say, "Well, he repeated himself." 15 But the longer the time lapse between the 16 repetition, that's one step of success. And 17 what we are seeing, in many instances, is 18 suddenly they don't come back anymore. 19 A more rigorous evaluation in the 20 District of Columbia, which has also set up a 21 Drug Court, is finding that the declining drug 22 use among defendants participating in the Drug 23 Treatment Court has paralleled, and in a 24 parallel graduated sanctions court, is 25 revealing again success of the program. 19 1 But the findings with the greatest 2 policy significance come from the correction 3 setting, that place to treat somebody, the 4 place we have to pay money for on the outside, 5 but we've got a place to treat them. 6 Rigorous evaluations of a number of 7 prison-based therapeutic communities around the 8 country have shown that these programs can 9 reduce both drug use and criminal behavior 10 after the offender is released from prison. 11 Moreover, when prison-based 12 therapeutic community-style treatment is 13 combined with post-release after care and 14 supervision, the reductions in drug use and 15 criminal behavior are even greater. 16 But, ladies and gentlemen, we are 17 missing a great bet. We've got prison systems 18 around the country that understand this. And 19 they are begging and pleading for programs and 20 systems and funding that can make it work. 21 With funding from the Office of the 22 National Drug Control Policy, the Justice 23 Department's National Institute of Justice is 24 implementing a research demonstration project 25 in Birmingham, Alabama called "Breaking the 20 1 Cycle." 2 Under this project everyone arrested 3 in Birmingham will be tested for drug use. And 4 every component of the criminal justice system, 5 including the jails and prisons, the pretrial 6 and probation departments, the judges, 7 prosecutors and defense counsel, with 8 leadership provided by the Birmingham Task 9 Program, with work together to reduce the level 10 of drug use in the population that moves from 11 arrest to final disposition. 12 Based on this model, I and General 13 McCaffrey and others are working to develop a 14 program that will help support interested 15 jurisdictions in developing a comprehensive 16 system-wide strategy that will break the cycle 17 of drug and alcohol abuse across this nation. 18 And I think we have to take it in 19 ordered pieces: Testing beginning at arrest; 20 treatment interventions that are sufficiently 21 well-funded and not spread so thin that they 22 become useless; graduated sanctions for 23 noncompliance; addressing the need that 24 sometimes caused the problem in the first 25 place: Educational deficiencies, life skills, 21 1 housing problems; and addressing the issue of 2 job training and placement. And, most of all, 3 after care. 4 So many of the programs we see work, 5 but then the person is returned to the 6 apartment over the open-air drug market where 7 they got into trouble in the first place. And 8 guess what happens? They're back in trouble 9 again. 10 I ask you to join with me in this 11 effort. We can make such an extraordinary 12 difference. The time is right now to do it. 13 Crime is down in this country. We have seen so 14 many initiatives in support of law enforcement. 15 The President's effort to put a 16 hundred thousand police officers on the streets 17 of this nation, prevention programs that are 18 working, other initiatives, the passage of the 19 Brady Act. 20 We are seeing an impact. 21 Unemployment is at one of its lowest levels in 22 many recent years. And yet we have a 23 challenge. The challenge is that we will see 24 more young people in this nation in the next 25 ten years than in many years. 22 1 But let's take what we have already 2 done. The American Bar Association and the 3 American Medical Association, working with the 4 Department of Justice and others, has helped to 5 reverse this nation's whole direction with 6 respect to domestic violence. 7 It is a remarkable thing to sit in a 8 meeting and see the President of the ABA there 9 with the President or the President-Elect of 10 the AMA all talking about what we can do to 11 address the problem of domestic violence in 12 this country, and to see lawyers and doctors 13 working together in communities to address the 14 problem in the community through increase in 15 battered spouse shelters, through intervention 16 programs that can made a difference. 17 Let us come together and let us reach 18 out to the AMA and let us make sure that every 19 state has a comprehensive program that will 20 have an impact on drug and alcohol abuse for 21 every defendant who suffers from it in this 22 country. (Applause.) 23 For the person who says, "It won't 24 work," talk to the professionals, talk to the 25 police officer who sees the kid back on the 23 1 street with the same drug problem that he had 2 when he went into prison. Talk to the 3 corrections official who sees the person. Let 4 us work together with common sense to use this 5 time of prosperity and relative peace to give 6 the children who are coming a future. 7 But four years ago in New York I 8 urged the lawyers of this nation to join in 9 building communities that gave our children a 10 chance to grow in a strong and positive way, to 11 join together to develop programs that kept 12 children away from crime and guns and drugs. 13 I asked the Department of Justice to 14 do the same. Some people were puzzled and 15 asked why an Attorney General was focusing on 16 children. Was she more a social worker than a 17 prosecutor? 18 But I'm proud because most lawyers, 19 the ABA, many local bar associations, police 20 chiefs, mayors, public defenders and thousands 21 of others across the nation have responded. 22 And they have said, "Yes, that is the way to 23 go." 24 We will never jail our way out of 25 this problem. We've got to develop a balanced 24 1 effort that punishes the young and violent 2 offenders with punishments that are fair and 3 firm and fit the crime while, at the same time, 4 doing everything we can to prevent the problem 5 in the first place. And we are seeing results. 6 In Boston, which had a terrible 7 problem with children being killed by children, 8 there has not been a child killed in a homicide 9 in two years, because they came together in a 10 balanced effort, the state attorney and federal 11 U. S. Attorney, in enforcement actions that 12 were balanced and thoughtful, and with 13 prevention programs that have made such an 14 extraordinary difference. 15 Last year for the first time in seven 16 years the national juvenile violent crime 17 arrest rate and the juvenile murder arrest rate 18 went down. 19 In addition, the most recent Crime 20 Victimization Survey shows that in 1995 21 juvenile violent crime in the United States 22 declined by 25 percent, by far the largest 23 decline in a single year in the history of the 24 Crime Victimization Survey. 25 These statistics are encouraging, but 25 1 they are not a signal for us to give up. The 2 number of young people is increasing. We must 3 renew our efforts in our communities, in our 4 nation. 5 And I will be working with Congress 6 when they return in September to make sure that 7 the Anti-Gang and Youth Violence Act introduced 8 by the President has the moneys for prevention 9 that can provide hope for other children across 10 America through truancy prevention programs and 11 afternoon programs that make a difference. 12 Maybe we can come back next year and 13 we will have a new challenge that can be 14 feasibly obtained to make sure that every child 15 in America is properly supervised after school 16 and in the evenings with activities and support 17 that give them a chance for the future. 18 Four years ago in New York I told you 19 that I loved lawyers and I loved the law. I 20 mean it now more than ever, because for four 21 years I have had a chance to watch and to meet 22 the nation's lawyers. You make me very proud 23 to be a lawyer. (Standing ovation.) 24 (Proceedings concluded at 1:55 p.m.) 25