and the fact that you pointed that out. There were not many witnesses who got to that point and you did it very well and I appreciate it. Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Jeffords? Mr. JEFFORDS. I have no questions. Thank you. Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Railsback. Mr. RAILSBACK. I have no further questions except that I would like to say that I have the privilege of knowing Ken Wooden. I attended a conference of which he was the chief sponsor in North Carolina. My feeling is that we can focus attention right now, and the heat is on right now. I understand that some of these materials are drying up right now. I agree with one comment that you made. If we don't do something more substantive, and put the heat on right now, it is going to be back in about 20 or 30 years. So I think that it is up to us to act. When we act, however, I sincerely believe that it is going to require action on the part of the States and local governments. Mr. WOODEN. Not quite, Congressman Railsback. I also admire you and the work that you have done, and what you stood for during the Nixon years. On that point, I would like to say that I don't think that the Congress serve this problem for the kids well. When you enacted the recent Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Act, you were giving States 5 years, 3 to 5 years to take noncriminal kids out of the institutions. The States do not need that long to empty the city and county jails where kids are being kept today. I think that this was a very poor piece of legislation, and I hope that President Carter will veto it. I don't think that the States need 5 years to empty out the jail of noncriminal kids. Mr. KILDEE. The committee thanks you for the work that you have done and are doing. We hope that these hearings will be more productive than the hearings of 1950. To have reminded us of that is a service, too. I do hope that we will meet the constitutional standards. Thank you very much. Our last witness is Mr. G. R. Dickerson, Acting Commissioner, U.S. Customs Service, Department of Treasury. Mr. Dickerson brings to us a very experienced background. He started with the Customs Service in a junior management position, and worked himself up to his present role. We welcome his expertise today. STATEMENT OF G. R. DICKERSON, ACTING COMMISSIONER, U.S. CUSTOMS SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY Mr. DICKERSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is G. R. Dickerson, Acting Commissioner, U.S. Customs Service. I have with me today, on my left, Ms. Eleanor Susske who is chief of our imports compliance branch in New York, and I believe she has testified before your subcommittee previously. On my left, I have Mr. Tad Rojek, who is Acting Chief Counsel. Mr. KILDEE. Yes. Ms. Susske testified before the committee before. Mr. DICKERSON. Mr. Chairman, I have a prepared statement. In view of the time, if you have no objection, I could summarize it very quickly. Mr. KILDEE. Without objection, your entire statement, as submitted, will be made part of the record. You may go ahead and summarize. [Statement G. R. Dickerson follows:] STATEMENT OF G. R. DICKERSON ACTING COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS JUNE 10, 1977 Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to have the opportunity to appear before this committee today on behalf of the Customs Service to offer comments on H.R. 3913. The Customs Service has responsibility for interdicting all contraband, including pornography, at more than 300 ports of entry and along the land and sea borders of the United States, which stretch some 96,000 miles. Customs is comprised of approximately 14,000 employees dedicated to the collection and protection of the revenue, and the enforcement of laws which prohibit or restrict the entry of articles which could endanger the health and welfare of the citizens of this country. This task includes the enforcement of numerous statutes for approximately 40 different Federal agencies. H.R. 3913 would add a new chapter to title 18, United States Code, making it a crime for a person to use children in the production of pornography and making it a crime for a person to transport or mail such pornography in interstate or foreign commerce, or to receive for the purpose of selling or to sell such pornography which has been transported in interstate or foreign commerce. It is clear that child pornography is an increasingly serious problem, and the Customs Service is dedicated to the prevention of the importation of such materials from abroad. The Customs Service believes that today, more than ever, it must be vigilant in stemming the importation of pornography, especially child pornography, which victimizes children in the most degrading way possible. Customs officers enforce the prohibitions against pornography and other restricted materials at all ports of entry in the United States. Most importations of pornography, including child pornography, arrive in the United States via postal channels. Mail importations, which included approximately 42 million parcels and 30 million letters in fiscal year 1976, are processed by 21 Customs Mail Branches staffed by 472 Customs Service employees. By screening and examining mail the Customs Service interdicts a significant quantity of pornography. Sealed mail is detained and opened only where Customs officials have reasonable cause to suspect that contraband or dutiable items are contained therein. This determination is made based on several factors by which printed matter can be distinguished from correspondence. These factors include the size, weight and feel of the envelope and the origin of the letter. The Customs Service in the Secaucus, New Jersey Mail Branch, recently began a special campaign to interdict child pornography believed to be entering the country through the mails. Intensive screening resulted in 25 detentions of sealed letter mail from Europe on the first day of the special effort. In one case, a pornographic film had been wound on a reel of magnetic tape and concealed under several feet of legitimate tape around the outside of the reel. The importation of pornography is prohibited by 19 U.S.C. 1305, under which Customs may seize any materials believed to be obscene. Under present procedures, such materials must be submitted within 14 days to a United States District Court for the determination of whether they should be forfeited and destroyed as obscene. At the major ports, imported motion picture film of a commercial nature is generally routed to a particular import specialist, an inspector, or a reviewing panel of supervisory inspectors for review. The motion picture may be viewed at the reviewing official's discretion, based on factors such as the title of the film, the country of origin, the Customs officer's knowledge of the importer, and his judgment based on experience. If the film is determined to be obscene, it is referred to a United States attorney for submission to a United States District Court for an obscenity determination. In the past 18 months, there have been no seizures of commercial films involving child pornography. In calendar year 1976 alone, the Customs Service in the port of New York made more than 14,000 seizures relating to pornography, almost exclusively of a non-commercial nature, where individuals would attempt to bring into this country one or two items for their personal use. The number of seizures of pornography in other ports were relatively small, with the Los Angeles Region, reporting seizures of 563 pieces of pornography from October, 1976 to May, 1977, being second to New York. It has been estimated by Customs officials handling these matters that up to 60% of the materials seized last year contained child pornography. While most of the pornography interdicted by Customs is non-commercial Customs is constantly watchful for large commercial shipments. This year, for example, one commercial shipment of 3,000 magazines, all dealing with child pornography, was seized in New York City. A decree of forfeiture was issued by the district court on June 1, 1977. Our intelligence indicates that commercial 35 mm master films (inter-negatives) are smuggled into the United States or entered into the country by fraudulent means. We know that when an inter-negative is smuggled into the country and reaches the distributor, it is easily and quickly duplicated and distributed to all parts of the country. This scheme has hampered our enforcement efforts under the smuggling statute, 18 U.S.C. 545, to obtain criminal prosecution of individuals found in possession of such pornographic films which are produced overseas or are duplicates of an Inter-negative made overseas. In order to sustain a violation of the smuggling statute, Customs must demonstrate that the suspect film is, in fact, the inter-negative that was smuggled into the United States and that a legal entry has not been made. If possible the law should be strengthened in this regard by providing for the authority to seize all duplicates made from an inter-negative not legally Imported into the United States. Under existing law, persons who By making it a criminal violation to transport or mail child pornography in foreign commerce, this bill would create a deterrent to the ordering of child pornography from abroad or the transporting of such material by a person entering the country. declare the importation of child pornography, but do not attempt to smuggle it into the country, are not subject to any criminal sanction, although the importation would be seized under 19 U.S.C. 1305. H.R. 3913 would add a new dimension to such offenses and subject such person to a criminal penalty. |