Political Quotes

“last month, I talked about the importance of the innovative ``Community Justice'' model for juvenile justice being developed in Deschutes County and Multnomah County, OR. Today, Senators Domenici and Ashcroft and I are introducing legislation that incorporates many important pieces of this Oregon model and also represents an effort to bring some new, bipartisan thinking to the issue of juvenile justice. Oregon's idea is that the juvenile justice system should weave the community into the very fabric of juvenile justice. This entails treating the victim as a customer of the juvenile justice system and realizing that when a crime is committed the whole community is the victim. There is a reciprocal obligation in communities--first, to give children the values and tools to ensure that youth crime is prevented and second, to look for at-risk children and try to form a net of services to keep these children from getting into trouble. However, once a young person steps over the line and commits a crime, part of the reciprocity involves the youth making the community whole through restitution and community service. I was pleased to work with Senators Domenici and Ashcroft to include some of these Oregon ideas into this bill. In particular, I think that the second tier of incentive grants will help encourage States to come up with ways to integrate the community into the juvenile justice process.”