Robert Torricelli: “Mr. Chairman, I am very proud to join with the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Burton] in offering this amendment. It is…”

“Mr. Chairman, I am very proud to join with the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Burton] in offering this amendment. It is not, Mr. Chairman, simply a question of how much we spend for prison construction, but what value we receive; whether indeed we get the added capacity that is required to prevent the early release of felons onto our streets and insure that there is just and fair punishment. Much has been learned about prison construction and ways to reduce those costs and the time that is required for construction. Many States and localities have learned that by prefabrication, indeed in the very manufacturing of prison cells, often with steel in a factory setting, these costs can be dramatically reduced. Indeed in a soon to be released independent national report by the Kitchell Consulting & Engineering Co., of California, it is believed that both the quality can be increased and the costs can be reduced by a significant percentage by these modular steel cells. They are prefabricated, they can be brought to the site and then put together. Indeed at times in the future when prison populations might change, they can even be disassembled and moved.”