Jack Brooks: “I rise in strong opposition to the amendment offered by my friend, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. McCollum], and in…”

“I rise in strong opposition to the amendment offered by my friend, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. McCollum], and in strong support of the substitute offered by the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Hughes], the distinguished chairman of the Judiciary Committee's subcommittee that has jurisdiction over prison matters and has spent hours and hours working on these problems. We all know that the States are having a crisis in prisoner population. Virtually every jurisdiction in the country is struggling to house an ever-growing prison population. The Hughes amendment offers them immediate assistance. The McCollum amendment appears to offer Federal assistance to the tune of $10.5 billion. But--before a State could get one penny of this money, the State would have to have a truth-in-sentencing law of no less than 85 percent--not 80 percent, not 84 percent--exactly 85 percent or no help. The State would have to have a three-time loser law. And, it would have to have the same pretrial detention system as the Federal Government. Unless and until all of these specific mandates have been adopted by a State exactly as the McCollum amendment stipulates--which could take years, for legislatures to meet even if a State was inclined to do so--the State would not be eligible for one red cent of these grant moneys. The States have vigorously opposed the Federal mandates contained in the McCollum amendment.”