Abe Fortas

“ If an alcoholic should be convicted for criminal conduct which is not a characteristic and involuntary part of the pattern of the disease as it afflicts him, nothing herein would prevent his punishment.↑ The term has been variously defined. ”

“ Although many aspects of the disease remain obscure, there are some hard facts-medical and, especially, legal facts-that are accessible to us and that provide a context in which the instant case may be analyzed. We are similarly woefully deficient in our medical, diagnostic, and therapeutic knowledge of mental disease and the problem of insanity ”

“ The consequences of treating alcoholics, under the public intoxication laws, as criminals can be identified with more specificity. Public drunkenness is punished as a crime, under a variety of laws and ordinances, in every State of the Union. [17] The Task Force on Drunkenness of the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice has reported that ' (t) wo million arrests in 1965-one of every three arrests in America-were for the offense of public drunkenness.' [18] Drunkenness offenders make up a large percentage of the population in short-term penal institutions. ”

“ The statutory rate for working off such fines in Texas is one day in jail for each $5 of fine unpaid. Texas Code Crim.Proc., Art. 43.09.
Appellant took the stand. He testified that he works at a tavern shining shoes. He makes about $12 a week which he uses to buy wine. He has a family, but he does not contribute to its support. He drinks wine every day. He gets drunk about once a week. When he gets drunk, he usually goes to sleep, 'mostly' in public places such as the sidewalk. He does not disturb the peace or interfere with others. ”

“ Alcoholism [3] is a major problem in the United States. [4] In 1956 the American Medical Association for the first time designated alcoholism as a major medical problem and urged that alcoholics be admitted to general hospitals for care. ”

“ No one can seriously suggest that the threat of fines and jail sentences actually deters habitual drunkenness or alcoholic addiction. * * * Nor, despite the heroic efforts being made in a few localities, is there much reason to suppose that any very effective measures of cure and therapy can or will be administered in the jails. ”