Political Quotes

“I thank Chairman Goodlatte for bringing this legislation to the floor, and I thank Mr. Conyers for supporting this as well. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Eric Williams Correctional Officer Protection Act. I was not fortunate enough to know Eric Williams while he lived, but, as I have met and worked with his parents, his coworkers and friends, I have come to grasp the depth of his loss to them all. As the chairman stated before me, on the night he was brutally murdered, Eric was alone and outnumbered, over 100 to 1, in a high- security Federal penitentiary. USP Canaan, where Eric was murdered, is one of three such high- security institutions in my congressional district. And I might add that Congressman Goodlatte and I toured the facilities at Lewisburg and at Allenwood several months ago and saw firsthand what takes place there. In each of them, corrections officers and other prison staff are constantly outnumbered while they work among the most violent criminals in the Federal prison system. Until the BOP implemented its OC spray pilot program, each of these correctional officers was also completely unarmed. Inmates, on the other hand, constantly find ingenious ways to fabricate weapons for use against BOP employees and other inmates. But, as I have visited and met with corrections officers at USP Canaan, FCC Allenwood, and USP Lewisburg, I have heard firsthand accounts why OC spray is a necessary tool for their job.…”