Melvin Watt: “I just want to address this third thing that we are doing with the money under the Scott amendment. The gentleman is…”

“I just want to address this third thing that we are doing with the money under the Scott amendment. The gentleman is transferring $50 million to the Drug Court Program. Now, I can tell you, because I have a Drug Court in my Congressional District, I have several Drug Courts in my Congressional District, and what they are doing is they are intervening with people who come in to the court system for drug offenses and they are being proactive with them. They are identifying the problems they have of addiction. They are getting them into treatment programs. They are making sure that when somebody comes into that drug program, the Drug Court, they are not processed through the system without having their problem dealt with. So what you see is this reduced recidivism, which, again, has contributed to the reduction in crime and the reduced need for prison space. This is just a wonderful, good amendment, and we all ought to be supportive of it. I urge my colleagues to support this wonderful amendment.”