Bill Clinton: “Yes. Well, on the first or second, what happens--he's asking--the crime bill, there's a provision, that will be a…”

“Yes. Well, on the first or second, what happens--he's asking--the crime bill, there's a provision, that will be a provision which says if you commit three violent crimes, you can't be paroled. No parole after three violent crimes. You asked what happens on the first or the second crime. It depends on, frankly, what the offense was. In other words, those people will go through the criminal justice system. And let's suppose it's an armed robbery, and the maximum sentence is 20 years, and a jury gives 15 years. Then the person will go to prison under a 15-year sentence and will be eligible for parole after serving a certain amount of that time. So then most States--and the Federal Government has sentencing guidelines on this--most States have laws which say if you commit a second crime, you have to serve a much longer period of time before you're eligible for parole. But under this provision we say if the crimes are violent, if you're really hurting somebody, then you shouldn't be paroled at all if you do it three times, because you've obviously shown that you're going to spend your life hurting other people, and it's not worth the risk. But the first two will be covered by whatever the law is now. And it depends on what the crime is and what the circumstances are. Safe Drinking Water”