[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 182 (Thursday, November 16, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2196]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          MANDATORY FEDERAL PRISON DRUG TREATMENT ACT OF 1995

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                           HON. FRED HEINEMAN

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 16, 1995

  Mr. HEINEMAN. Mr. Speaker, today I am proud to introduce the 
Mandatory Federal Prison Drug Treatment Act of 1995. This legislation 
will restore equity in the way the Federal Bureau of Prisons [BOP] 
administers its drug treatment program so that drug addicts will stop 
being rewarded for being addicts.
  Instead of rewarding prison drug addicts at the expense of other 
inmates, the Mandatory Federal Prison Drug Treatment Act provides a 
proper incentive to recovering addicts to get treatment.
  The 1994 crime bill changed the way that the BOP administers its 
substance abuse treatment programs to allow drug abusers to get out of 
prison a year earlier than their clean counterparts. For example, two 
Federal prisoners who are convicted of the same nonviolent offense can 
receive substantially different sentences.
  This inequity is not based on past criminal history. Rather, the 
prisoners' unequal sentences are the result of one inmate's drug 
addiction. Unfortunately, the BOP can reward a drug addict by taking a 
year off his sentence after completion of a drug treatment program. My 
38 years in law enforcement tells me that this is simply wrong.
  The Mandatory Federal Prison Drug Treatment Act ties successful 
completion of the drug treatment program to good time. The Sentencing 
Reform Act of 1984 abolished parole in Federal prisons. Thus, inmates 
serve the entirety of their sentences, reduced only by credit for 
satisfactory behavior--good time. This bill simply requires that drug 
addicts complete the drug treatment program before they can receive any 
good time credits which they have accrued.
  At present there are 99,000 prisoners in custody and control of the 
BOP. There are over 26,000 prisoners who need treatment.

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