Major Owens: “the House is presently considering the crime bill, and this afternoon we experienced something that might be called a…”

“the House is presently considering the crime bill, and this afternoon we experienced something that might be called a frenzy, a frenzy of applications of the death penalty. We seem to be preoccupied with death. In fact, Mr. Speaker, the entire approach to crime in the United States of America by this body appears to be a barbarian's approach. We are acting as if we were uncivilized. Never before have so many educated, well educated, men and women behaved in such a ridiculous way. I am as concerned about crime as anybody in America, but I do not think we are going to solve the crime problem with a preoccupation with death. I do not think we are going to solve the crime problem by expending enormous amounts of money to build prisons. Mr. Speaker, what we are doing is contrary to what scientific evidence shows and contrary to people who know about crime, and penology, and rehabilitation geriatrics. Most of the crime is committed by young people, and yet we are moving to put people in prison for long periods, which means we will have nursing homes on a massive scale paid for by the taxpayers. There are numerous things that just do not add up, Mr. Speaker, but nobody wants to look at it now. The frenzy is on, and I say, ``You jump in the middle of the frenzy, and nobody is going to hear you, so I'm delighted to have this 5 minutes to just speak in a quiet moment when reason might be heard.'' There is one element of fraud in all of these proceedings related to crime.…”