European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 20, 1981, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 12 the stars and stripes february 1981 Tom Wicker preventive jailing Means presumption of guilt Lugi Timath Public concern Riboul High crime rates has brought Back into the news one of those Quick fix proposals that sound Good until someone is rude enough to Call it by its real name Preven Tive mayor Rdward Koch of new York has called for legislation that would enable judges to fold certain serious felony defendants without bail when their release would pose a threat to the safety of the chief Justice Warren Burger recently suggested that judges be Given the Power to refuse bail for defendants when a combination of the seriousness of the alleged plus the past record of the suggested that he or she might commit another crime if attorney Jeneral William French has set leadership of a National Effort against violent crime As the top prior Ity for the Reagan administrations Justice officials of that Agency told Robert Pear of the new York times in preparing for this they saw Merit in permitting judges to consider the safety of the Community As a Factor when deciding whether to release defendants before As the Law now stands except in the District of judges arc sup posed to set bail to insure that a defendant appears for they arc not entitled to withhold bail for the safety of the Community or because they fear a suspect might commit a crime if its Safe to suggest that the general Public would surely support the idea that persons Likely to commit another crime particularly a violent crime should not be granted pretrial no one likes to read about a person out on bail after a rape charge being accused of another or violent but the experience of the District of co Lumbia is crime rates have certainly not declined there since the Nixon in its highly War on gave the District preventive detention in the late in the Law has proved largely As a matter of simple it also requires that persons held without bail be brought to trial within 60 since that is a difficult Standard to meet in any jurisdiction with High crime the practical result has been that few defendants have been subjected to preventive but any remotely defensible pre Bentiv detention Law would have to have a Speed trial provision and the net effect anywhere is Likely to be what it has been in the Federal City almost the experience that speedy trial is by far the better remedy for the problem at which preventive detention would be speedy More is a goal on which everyone can agree this ought to be the focus of really effective criminal Justice preventive in Sharp and however is a negation of the presumption of a foundation Stone of american preventive detention not Only presumes a defendant guilty of a crime for which he or she has not been tried it assumes that that defendant will commit another crime and punishes him or her for both presumption and As the National Council on crime and delinquency Points out in commentary on mayor Kochs preventive detention often causes a defendant to lose a Job and forces his or her family onto welfare the Council also cites studies showing that defendants held before trial Are More Likely to be found guilty and receive longer sentences than those released on with out regard to the Gravity of the preventive detention also requires judges to predict criminal at which Nei ther they nor anyone is much since no one can predict accurately in every judges charged with that responsibility would be inclined to err on the Side of the safety of the Community and hold not defendants which would in crease the likelihood of injustice without necessarily protecting the safety of the com to his tried to limit the Dan Gers of prediction by citing exact categories of defendants who could be held without bail All murder and rape for or any violent felony suspect convicted of a violent felony in the past 10 but this system would have its own defects not every murderer in few would go out and commit another violent but Many persons arrested for some minor offence might commit a violent if in the Long and no matter How Plau sible preventive detention its better to stick with the Constitution and the pre sumption that a defendant is innocent until proven guilty above because a defendant could be or or any one of c new York times to Honni vat James Kilpatrick Navy today undermanned and overworked Washington the Power vested in Congress is to provide and maintain a but Over the past decade that Power has been miserably today Navy is undermanned and if the example of the Guam is at All our ships Are sadly with every month that our sea Power Falls be Hind that of the soviet in his recent appearance on Capitol Thomas Hayward did his Best to put a Good face on Hayward is chief of naval today he is better than it was three years last year saw five new one attack one amphibious assault and one Fleet Oiler put to six new Frig ates were but these sunny tidings were swiftly i would have to Hayward that while we had a very Good year in the russians had a spectacular the United states produced one attack submarine the soviets produced our first Trident is yet to take to sea the soviets introduced the Lead ships of two new sub Marine the Oscar and the the typhoon is the largest submarine Ever constructed it carries 20 ballistic missiles with a Range greater than As a companion to their new underwater the soviets last year sent on sea trials their nuclear powered mis Sile Cruiser leaving a second one under construction in we possess nothing comparable to in the soviets produced about 40 ships last we produced Over the past 10 the number of ships in the Fleet has dropped by in i columns i comments i this same the Navy has been charged with patrolling More than twice the area it guarded a decade for the first time in anyone said Flay the Navy is unable fully to meet its peacetime our margin of Comfort is totally we Are operating at the ragged Edge of a Large part of the problem is a manpower during 1980 the Carrier Eisen Hower was under Way for 247 Days in the Indian that included periods of 93 and 154 Days of continuous without touching the Carrier Nimitz was comparably such duty takes a toll of the Navy is Short Petty As a direct result of these personnel said the navys readiness today is the lowest i have seen it during my naval if the situation imposes the greatest sacrifices upon seagoing men and their Fame it also imposes great burdens upon the deferred maintenance is no Maine and when a ship is pulled off the line for haste tends to make waste As the maddening travails of the Guam make the Guam is an amphibious assault sent to the Philadelphia naval shipyard in january of she limped out in poorer condition that she went William recently told the House when the ship left the it was unable to make full Power its pumps Malf unc its Saltwater evaporators did not work its engines were fouled by Oil and the ships sewage holding tank was on several the Guam lost Power altogether and had to be towed Back to though had been spent to overhaul the navigation sys the work had been done so poorly that during a recent Shakedown cruise the ships position had to be determined by the Christopher Columbus method of celestial part of the Guam appalling Story May be attributed to shoddy workmanship at and in part to mismanage ment by the Navy the principal cause lies in the pressure to get maintenance completed on a crash basis so that ships can get Back to the navys pending budget for fiscal year 82 offers some but not much real after would amount to something less than the United states Navy once was the proudest and most powerful Fleet in the looking to the Admiral Hayward used a phrase that chills the without massive he by mid80s our Licet will be dead in the c United press Syndicate the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states