[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 51 (Monday, December 25, 1995)]
[Pages 2202-2203]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Memorandum on Federal Arrestee Drug Testing

December 18, 1995

Memorandum for the Attorney General

Subject: Development of the Administration's Federal Arrestee Drug 
Testing Policy

    Illegal drugs plague our communities, causing despair and illness, 
and, most importantly, contributing significantly to unacceptable levels 
of crime and violence. More than half of all individuals brought into 
the Nation's criminal justice system have substance abuse problems. Too 
often, the same criminal drug users cycle through the court, 
corrections, and probation systems still hooked on drugs and still 
committing crimes to support their habit.
    We can and will continue to prosecute and convict these criminal 
drug users. Yet our criminal justice system must do more to try to 
reduce drug use. Across the country, employers have accepted their 
corporate responsibility to reduce the levels of drug use within their 
workplaces.
    So too, the agencies of our criminal justice system must do their 
part, giving criminal drug users powerful incentives to stay off drugs 
by putting a high price on continued drug use. These incentives--
commonly referred to as ``coerced abstinence''--should be applied at the 
earliest possible stage in a person's interaction with the criminal 
justice system--following arrest.
    To ensure that we are doing all we can to break the cycle of drugs 
and crime, I am directing you to develop a universal policy providing 
for drug testing of all Federal arrestees before decisions are made on 
whether to release them into the community pending trial. I further 
direct that you establish a policy whereby Federal prosecutors will seek 
appropriate measures for arrestees who fail pretrial drug tests.

[[Page 2203]]

    The Federal criminal justice system should serve as a model for 
State criminal justice systems--where the majority of criminal cases are 
processed and the cycle of repeat drug-related offenders is most 
evident. Therefore, I am also directing you to take all appropriate 
steps to encourage States to adopt and implement the same policies that 
we are initiating at the Federal level.
    You should report to me in writing by March 31, 1996, on the 
specific steps you will take to implement this policy.
                                            William J. Clinton