Lawyers' panel endorses 'preventive detention'

An American Bar Association task force has agreed with administration and congressional conservatives in suggesting that ''preventive detention'' be used to keep dangerous suspects off the street before trial.

But it warned the practice should be used only under careful safeguards with special hearings to consider a suspect's dangerousness. Defendants should be held when they are accused of committing a violent crime while on release for a previous offense and when they have a history of violent crimes. The issue is now before the US Supreme Court.