Political Quotes

“before my election to the House of Representatives in 1985, I served for two terms, 8 years, as the district attorney for the Eighth Judicial District in Texas. During that 8-year period of time, I had an up close and personal look at violent crime, who commits violent crime, and, at least in Texas, how prosecution and punishment worked. I will say that during that period of time, in fact, when I left my duties as district attorney, the Texas law at the time was that criminals who were sentenced to prison would be in all cases eligible for parole when they had served one-third of their sentence. The incredible thing was that in Texas at that same time, each of those criminals convicted and serving time in prison could get 3 days credit for each day they served. So, in effect, in 1984 and 1985 and 1986, criminals in Texas serving time in the Texas Department of Corrections would be eligible for parole when they had served one-ninth of their sentence. Now, Texas has changed that law in recent years, and under new statutes passed in my home State, now violent criminals and repeat offenders have to serve a much larger percentage of their time. And guess what? The violent crime rate in Texas has dropped.”