Political Quotes

“I want to say I represent the State of Alabama, one of 44 of 47 States that likely would not qualify under this current approach to building prisons. In my former life I was the president of the Alabama District Attorneys Association. I spent 10 years prosecuting violent offenders, violent juvenile offenders, and just this week I was checking on three of those who are in prisons where they will have to be released because there simply is not enough bed space or places to incarcerate those prisoners. I think the 1994 crime bill made sense. I think we started an effective partnership with the States where we gave the States a hand in building prisons, and we told them that we wanted to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. I think it is only fair and this amendment seeks to address that, that we amend this incarceration provision so that we do allow States to begin gaining in this partnership with us, and I think it is only fair that we rectify this by saying that when 50 percent of them reach this level then we will provide prison grants for the States.”