History Appendix D: NY Times Report 1965

From The New York Times, Tuesday, August 24, 1965: A Unified Correctional System Studied by Justice Department

WASHINGTON, Aug. 23 - Attorney General Nicholas deB. Katzenbach confirmed to day that the Justice Department was considering a unification of the fragmented Federal correctional system.
Mr. Katzenbach made the politically sensitive disclosure about the reorganization, which is expected to be vigorously resisted by Federal judges and probation officers, in a speech prepared for the American Correctional Association in Boston.
The speech was released by Mr. Katzenbach’s office here.
There are now 92 autonomous probation offices – one for each Federal judicial district – and the appointment [sic] more than 500 probation officers and other personnel is a major source of patronage for United States district judges.
Opposing Reactions
The plan to bring the probation officers under a unified administrative system were disclosed in a speech by Chief Justice Earl Warren last May.  He said a career service, with centralized training and transfers of personnel among districts, would be necessary to administer the modern correctional system of halfway houses, work-release programs and liberalized probation now being considered by Congress.
The Justice Department has reportedly received a number of opposing reactions from district judges in recent weeks.
Last month the publication of the Federal Probation Officers Association attacked the unification plans as “ominous black clouds.”
Mr. Katzenbach’s statement today that the department was “discussing” the reorganization was the first time he had mentioned it in a public speech.
“A corrections system cannot do a proper job unless it is a continuous and closely interwoven process,” he said. “The usefulness of programs such as vocational training or work release are severely curtailed if they are not a part of some rationalized whole.”
Mr. Katzenbach pointed out that the courts, probation officers, penitentiaries, parole and other functions were inseparable as to their effects on prisoners, but that “Federal probation officers are under the jurisdiction of the courts rather than the Bureau of Prisons.”
Legislation Drafted
“We are now discussing a reorganization which would bring all correctional personnel under one administrative system,” he said.
The department’s Office of Criminal Justice has reportedly been working on legislation that would place the probation officers and the Bureau of Prisons under a single administration, with the Board of Parole affiliated with it. Probation officers presently supervise parole for the parole board, in addition to preparing probation reports for the judges.
Mr. Katzenbach’s discussion [sic] the issue before the Correctional Association was believed here to be an effort to lay the groundwork for Congressional action, [sic] this might come next year.
Mr. Katzenbach said unemployed persons might be retrained for prison work. He also suggested locating institutions near universities and hospitals so that sociologists, psychologists and psychiatrists on their staffs would be available to help train and rehabilitate prisoners.