Bennett Initiates Massive D.C. Assault on Drug-Related Crime

WASHINGTON — National drug policy director William J. Bennett announced today a major federal effort to crack down on drug-related crime in the nation’s capital, saying the District of Columbia government has “failed to serve its citizens.”

“Already in the first four months of 1989 the city has seen 135 new murders,” Bennett said in a statement released at the White House. “And that problem is getting worse, not better.”

“The plain fact is that, for too long and in too many respects, the D.C. government has failed to serve its citizens,” Bennett said.

Under the plan, approved today by President Bush, the Federal Bureau of Prisons will immediately accept 250 prisoners housed in the local jail, a 500-bed pretrial detention facility will be built within one year and a 700-bed federal prison will be constructed for the Washington-Baltimore area.

A Washington-area drug task force will get an additional 57 federal, state and local investigators under the plan, including 25 FBI agents and 11 Drug Enforcement Administration agents.