Albert Russell Wynn: “Basically, it was an amendment dealing with the issue of drug courts, which, as the gentleman knows, is a very important…”

“Basically, it was an amendment dealing with the issue of drug courts, which, as the gentleman knows, is a very important diversionary program designed to provide drug users with a program of intense scrutiny, rehabilitation, drug testing, counseling and the like which has proven to be very successful in reducing drug crimes. It has an outstandingly low recidivism rate. Studies from the American University, the Columbia University, as well as the National Institute of Justice, have all indicated that where we have a criminal placed in a drug court program there is a very low rate of recidivism. For this reason, we believe this program ought to be funded robustly. The program was authorized at $60 million. The committee reported a funding level of $50 million, and I would like to ask the chairman if he would work with the ranking member and myself in conference to see if we could boost that funding level from $50 to the authorized $60 million.”