Barr Offers Cities and States List of Anti-Crime Measures

Insisting that it was not an election-year gambit, Atty. Gen. William P. Barr on Tuesday recommended 24 ways to fight violent crime at the state and local level, with an emphasis on tougher penalties, longer sentences and more prisons.

Many of the measures have already been adopted by the federal government and, to a lesser extent, several states, including California. Barr promoted the recommendations during an elaborate Justice Department ceremony featuring John Walsh, host of the TV show “America’s Most Wanted.”

Violent crime in America “is largely the problem of the repeat, violent offender,” Barr said in a glossy, 60-page booklet distributed to several hundred law enforcement officials and representatives of victims rights groups who attended the ceremony.

The primary goal of the criminal justice system, he said, “must be to identify and incarcerate this hard-core group of chronic offenders.”

“I want to stress that this is not a partisan, political report,” Barr said, adding that it was “developed by a broad, bipartisan group of law enforcement professionals.”

Barr’s proposals were endorsed by officials of the National District Attorneys Assn., the National Sheriffs Assn., the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police, the California Board of Prison Terms, Memory of Victims Everywhere and New Jersey Atty. Gen. Robert J. Del Tufo.

Among the proposals are a call for states and localities to:

* Provide for pretrial detention of dangerous defendants.

* Restrict parole and increase prison time actually served by violent offenders.

* Adopt mandatory minimum penalties for gun offenders, armed career criminals and habitual violent offenders.

* Institute drug testing throughout the criminal justice process.