Jay Dickey: “the people in the fourth district, the law enforcement officials of the Fourth District of Arkansas, have told me…”

“the people in the fourth district, the law enforcement officials of the Fourth District of Arkansas, have told me explicitly there are five things that need to be done: more prisons, more police, better equipment, criminal law reform, and preventive measures. We have here one of those particular needs that is being taken care of by this amendment, the Chapman amendment, and that is having more prisons. We have people at home who are afraid to go into their driveways without being robbed, they are afraid to go into automatic teller machines, they are afraid to sit in front of their homes because of drive-by killings, and this is in rural Arkansas. We need to put these people away so the police do not have to look at them again, so that the people who testify against these criminals do not have to face them again, and so that society does not have to face them again. Somehow we will get a message across to other criminals that we are serious about what we are doing. If we look at the States who have used more incarceration, we have a 12.7 percent decrease in crime. If we look at those who have not had such incarceration rates, the rate of violent crime has gone up 6.9 percent. It is time for us to help the policeman, it is time for us to help ourselves and to vote for the Chapman amendment so that we can get more prison space and keep prisoners in jail and in prison.”