On the recordMarch 11, 1994
Forty-nine percent of the prisoners in our States are nonviolent prisoners. They could just as well be put in low-cost facilities, whether inflatable dome structures or Quonset huts or Butler buildings, like millions of Americans have lived in for many years of their lives. I had an amendment in the crime bill that advocated States looking at this and trying to put as many prisoners as possible into that type of facility. We are doing a little bit of that in Ohio now. I talked to the Governor about it a couple of years ago, as a matter of fact, and they are now using some of these inflatable structures, like we see used for tennis facilities in the country. We could get people in and keep them in. I saw a TV program where, I believe, in the State of North Carolina, of the sentences given to prisoners, one-twelfth of the sentence is the average served. It makes a mockery out of our criminal justice system.
Source
govinfo.gov
