Tom Delay: “I just feel that it is cruel and unusual to turn violent criminals out on the streets for prison conditions. It is very…”

“I just feel that it is cruel and unusual to turn violent criminals out on the streets for prison conditions. It is very simple. We are just saying that they cannot turn violent criminals out on the streets because of prison conditions. They can do anything else to correct bad prison conditions, and the cases that the gentleman cites are horrible. They should be corrected. What we are saying is that we cannot turn them back out on the street to prey on our constituents because of prison conditions. Correct them in a different way. We can also renegotiate consent decrees, those consent decrees that this legislation may affect. Article 3 of the Constitution allows us to do it and precedent allows us to do it. We are just saying, do not turn violent criminals out on the street because of prison overcrowding and prison conditions.”