Melvin Watt: “We are down to definitely a maximum of 11. And understand that there are four criteria that a State has to meet to get…”

“We are down to definitely a maximum of 11. And understand that there are four criteria that a State has to meet to get these funds. What we found out was that North Carolina, as aggressive as we are, as much as North Carolina supports the philosophy of the bill the gentleman from Florida professes to support, that we do not meet three out of the four requirements. We fail on three out of the four requirements. We do not have open juvenile records; we do not allow the prosecutor, by himself, to decide whether to prosecute as an adult, because we think it is reasonable for a judge to make that determination; and we do not sanction parents who fail to supervise their children. We do not punish the parents for that. Those are three of the four requirements and we fail on those three, so we do not get any of the money, even though we have some of the toughest juvenile laws in America.”