Bennett Outlines Anti-Drug Plan : States Should Seize Autos, Fine Parents, Jail Offenders, He Says

Providing clues to the anti-drug strategy he is devising, William J. Bennett, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Wednesday unveiled the first elements of a model legislative package for state governments that he said would ensure certain punishment for all drug crimes.

Among the proposals, introduced in what Bennett described as a “tough” speech, are laws that would empower local authorities to seize the automobiles of those arrested for drug offenses and require weekend incarceration for first-time drug offenders.

Another would subject parents to steep fines or even jail sentences if their children were found guilty of drug-related crimes. The measure--similar to California’s new anti-gang legislation--would make it clear that parents “must bear responsibility for the behavior and activities of minors in their charge,” Bennett said.

Bennett has decided to use a little-known $136-million fund for an ambitious program of federal prison construction to further ensure that drug offenders can be punished, senior Administration officials said Wednesday.

While neither the prison construction program nor the model anti-drug legislation has yet been formally put forward, Bennett’s forceful advocacy of them offered a clear indication of the approach that he and his office are taking.

Together, the proposals--part of a program that Bennett called “consequences and confrontation”--suggest a preference for the premise that those selling or using drugs are more likely to refrain if they are certain that they will be punished should they be convicted.

Bennett has a September deadline for completing work on a plan for combatting the nation’s drug problems.

In his speech before the Washington Hebrew Congregation, Bennett decried a national “crisis of authority” that has allowed drug traffickers to believe that the nation’s narcotics laws lack power and can be violated without consequence.

“Those guilty of drug offenses must believe that punishment is inevitable,” Bennett declared. “As long as they don’t, the deterrent effect of incarceration will be neutralized.”

Last month, Bennett made prison construction the central element of an $80-million plan to help rescue the District of Columbia from inundation by drug-related crime, arguing that the city’s principal problem is its inability to imprison convicted drug offenders.

The drug official’s comments came as the White House prepared to introduce a comprehensive federal anti-crime and anti-drug package to be enacted at the federal level, with the program expected to focus on plans for new prison construction and stiffer sentences.

Proposals to build more federal prisons to ease overcrowding long have been hamstrung by the shortage of available funds. Administration officials said Wednesday that Bennett plans to overcome that obstacle by drawing on a new $136-million fund composed of assets forfeited by convicted drug traffickers.

Such funds previously have been administered by the government’s anti-drug agencies, and some have been returned to state and local drug enforcement agencies. Under a little-noticed provision in legislation passed by Congress last year, Bennett’s office is to gain control over the money in October, when the 1990 fiscal year begins.

The $136-million fund likely could finance no more than three full-scale federal prisons housing about 2,500 prisoners, according to an analysis of recent construction costs. However, many more inmates could be housed if the Administration decided to build temporary facilities or convert existing buildings at shut-down military bases, as Bennett’s office is believed to be considering.

The state and local initiatives endorsed by Bennett on Wednesday are aimed principally at the casual or youthful narcotics offender, arguing that current “empty threats of long, hard punishment” have failed to make clear that drug use would not be tolerated.

While Bennett had discussed such ideas previously, he made clear for the first time Wednesday in remarks to reporters that he intended to include the specific proposals “as part of our model legislation for the states.”

Cites Cities’ Plans

One such plan, now in place in Phoenix, would require casual users convicted of first-time drug offenses to pay fines and spend a weekend in jail. Another, based on a Philadelphia initiative, would seize an individual’s automobile if he were arrested for a drug offense and confiscate it if he were convicted. Cars are seized routinely in federal drug cases, but often are not in state and local jurisdictions.

The proposed parental responsibility law for drug offenders is based on a plan now in place in Toledo, Ohio, where parents face the prospect of civil penalties imposed by juvenile courts if their children are convicted of drug-related crimes.

Another plan endorsed by Bennett for enactment by state and local governments would suspend or even revoke the driver’s licenses of drug offenders--a penalty that he said would deter those regarding the right to drive as an “elemental freedom.”

While Bennett devoted the specific elements of his speech to law enforcement efforts, he also offered general encouragement for programs aimed at drug education and drug treatment.

But he made clear that he favors confrontation in such efforts as well, saying that “consequences can only be impressed upon the consciousness when confrontational tactics are used to impress” drug users.

Second Son Born

Bennett delivered the speech just hours after his wife, Mary Elayne gave birth to their second son.

Bennett told the audience that he had planned to cancel his appearance but had been persuaded otherwise by his wife’s concern about the impact of the drug plague on the future of their children.

“She said, ‘Well, you had a lot of reason to give the speech yesterday,’ ” Bennett recounted. “ ‘You have one more reason to give it today.’ ”