Zoe Lofgren: “we think about juvenile delinquency, and we know it is a serious problem in our country. I think it is very easy for us…”

“we think about juvenile delinquency, and we know it is a serious problem in our country. I think it is very easy for us to lose our way, however, because we do not, as a country, often make the distinction between what we need to do for justice compared to what we need to do for public safety. The two are not always the same. For those who have been victimized by crime, there is never a fair answer. But we do know that victims of crime seek justice. They seek to be made whole. They seek punishment for those who did harm to them or to a loved one. That is a human emotion that we all feel and share, and our hearts go out to victims of crime. However, punishment does not always mean that we will have a system that keeps us safe. Our job as legislators is to acknowledge and to provide for victim's need to have justice in the system, but in a more generic way to take thoughtful, accountable, cost-effective steps to prevent more victims from being created, and to make sure that we have a safe society. The problem with H.R. 3 is that it takes $1.5 billion and puts it into systems that have not worked instead of putting it into systems that will keep us safer. We know when we look at the Federal aspects of the bill that it is very extreme. Automatic trial of 14-year-olds without judicial review who are alleged to have committed certain offenses will not make us safer.”