Opinion ID: 314281
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: remand for further consideration of disposition

Text: 346 Our conclusion that this case should be remanded for further consideration by the District Court of disposition arises in part from its unusual procedural posture. Under the circumstances of this case, we exercise our jurisdiction of the appeal from the conviction-accompanied as it was by a judgment placing appellant under confinement, for a Title II NARA consideration to guide disposition after sentencing, but remand to permit further consideration of NARA disposition if requested by appellant. 158 Our settled jurisprudence calls on us to apply 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2106 so as to order a remand following a sentence when there is a possibility that there was a failure to give NARA dispositions full consideration. 159 The present case is considered appropriate for such a remand order, since prior to the disposition order, by the trial judge, this court appointed counsel to argue the appeal, and he diligently filed his brief on the merits and sought the en banc consideration which we ordered. Counsel for both appellant and the Government have thus focused on conviction velnon, and yet a simple order of affirmance might preclude any further judicial consideration of the NARA issue. 347 In such consideration on remand, the District Court would be free to take into account all pertinent material. The material available to this court indicates that the failure of the defendant to profit from a prior experience at Danbury is not conclusive. NARA itself makes clear that a prior failure on a Title I commitment does not preclude a Title II commitment. 160 And the fact that a person is found not likely to be rehabilitated under a Danbury program does not negative a successful adjustment through a methadone-maintenance program of the kind administered by D.C.'s Narcotic Treatment Administration. The HEW Department, and the National Institute of Mental Health, have thus far limited NARA's rehabilitation programs, notwithstanding some variations in approach, 161 to addicts with a high motivation for treatment. 162 While Congress contemplated in 1966 that NARA civil commitment (Titles I and III) would be limited to selected narcotic addicts the legislative history also underscores the need for flexible approaches, embodying on-going medical knowledge, and it would seem that Title II dispositions could be governed by the broad objective of NARA voiced by the Committee as follows: 348 [T]he bill provides alternatives which provide a needed flexibility in the law. The practical effect of the implementation of the law provided for in the bill, is that strict punishment can be meted out where required to the hardened criminal, while justice can be tempered with judgment and fairness in those cases where it is to the best interest of society and the individual that such a course be followed. 163 349 There is widespread conviction that many addicts who cannot be initially motivated for the rehabilitation programs now used by the Surgeon General can be successfully rescued from criminality, and oriented toward work performance and relatively normal life as a socially useful citizen, happy in himself and in society, through a methadone-maintenance program coupled with effective counseling. 164 Indeed this view seems to have been taken in the NARA Staff Evaluation Report in September 1969 to a trial judge in the then Court of General Session, that Raymond Moore is an addict who is not likely to be rehabilitated through a treatment program in this Institution at this time. . . . He might possibly be considered a suitable prospect for a Methadone Program, but it also appears that he is in need of hospital care. 350 The proffered testimony of Mr. Gore of NTA, that appellant's chances for rehabilitation are good, while properly excluded at trial, would of course be considered on a disposition remand. While the picture is not completely clear, there is reason to believe that appellant would at least be able to proffer (appellant's brief, at 37) that it was not until after the January 1970 offense for which appellant was convicted that methadone maintenance programs became available to appellant, due to the efforts of the Narcotic Treatment Agency. In February 1970 appellant tried the methadone program available at the Blackman's Development Center, but this consisted of low detoxification doses and was no help to him. Although appellant Moore's previous request for help for his addiction while in the judicial system was unavailing, this apparently changed in September 1970 when he was referred, by his probation officer, to the Narcotics Treatment Administration, with its substantial methadone doses. 351 We contemplate a remand pursuant to which the District Court will arrange for a current assessment by the Surgeon General concerning Title II possibilities, one that takes into account possible changes in that official's administration of Title II and also the possible changes wrought in appellant by his more successful experience in the D.C's Narcotic Treatment Agency. Even assuming the Danbury program would not be suitable for appellant in the first instance, the remand could explore the suitability of programs at other facilities-which are either operated by the Public Health Services or to which that Service has access, including the access to the community treatment centers-opened up by recent legislation. 165 See United States v. Miller, 155 U.S.App.D.C. 110, 476 F.2d 555 (1973). The remand to explore NARA possibilities could also consider whether under Title II, after conditional release is granted, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 4254, the individual can receive methadone in a community treatment center providing aftercare, and if so whether methadone is now being used in NARA confinement, or at least used as a transitional means of adjusting to a more rigorous NARA program. 352 Our view that the interest of justice calls for thorough-going review of NARA possibilities is a corollary of the approach reflected in this opinion, that the courts should refrain from questioning convictions when Congress has authorized an on-going liberalization of postconviction alternatives. That premise calls for more than lip-service or mechanical consideration of the reality of these alternatives. 353 We conclude that the appropriate disposition is an affirmance of the conviction, and a remand for further consideration of post-conviction alternatives, for disposition. 166 354 The remand could also consider whether remanding the defendant to the kind of custody of the Attorney General that is provided by Title II of NARA could be blended with the kind of Attorney General custody that has been developed in connection with work-release programs, and with remittance to community residential centers, which offer guidance to persons with narcotic addiction problems. 167