Political Quotes

“America needs truth in sentencing. In the avalanche of legislation that has been introduced this year to address the issue of crime in America, one bill which my colleague, the gentleman from Alaska [Mr. Young], and I have introduced will, I think, make a real difference very quickly. This bill would give States incentives to adopt truth-in-sentencing laws that would require violent and repeat offenders to serve 85 percent of their sentence before they are eligible for early release or parole. The incentives would come in the form of grants to the States to build the prison space that would be needed to house these violent felons. Statistics tell us that 6 percent of the repeat and violent offenders commit 70 percent of the violent crime in America. This legislation targets that 6 percent of the violent criminals in this country and gives them not 3 strikes, not 2 strikes, but when they are convicted of that violent crime, it will lock them up and keep them there. It is commonsense legislation that I hope my colleagues will examine, and I urge the Members to cosponsor H.R. 3584. Mr. Speaker, before this job I was a district attorney, and I can tell the Members that nothing will work better and more quickly to stop violent crime in America than truth in sentencing.”