[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 454 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 454

  To provide incentives to encourage stronger truth in sentencing of 
               violent offenders, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 17, 1997

 Mr. Dorgan (for himself and Mr. Craig) introduced the following bill; 
  which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To provide incentives to encourage stronger truth in sentencing of 
               violent offenders, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Stop Allowing Felons Early Release 
(SAFER) Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds that--
            (1) violent criminals often serve only a small portion of 
        the terms of imprisonment to which they are sentenced;
            (2) a significant proportion of the most serious crimes of 
        violence committed in the United States are committed by 
        criminals who have been released early from a term of 
        imprisonment to which they were sentenced for a prior 
        conviction for a crime of violence;
            (3) violent criminals who are released before the 
        expiration of the term of imprisonment to which they were 
        sentenced often travel to other States to commit subsequent 
        crimes of violence;
            (4) crimes of violence and the threat of crimes of violence 
        committed by violent criminals who are released from prison 
        before the expiration of the term of imprisonment to which they 
        were sentenced affects tourism, economic development, use of 
        the interstate highway system, federally owned or supported 
        facilities, and other commercial activities of individuals; and
            (5) the policies of one State regarding the early release 
        of criminals sentenced in that State for a crime of violence 
        often affect the citizens of other States, who can influence 
        those policies only through Federal law.
    (b) Purpose.--The purpose of this Act is to reduce crimes of 
violence by encouraging States to incarcerate violent offenders for the 
full term of imprisonment to which they are sentenced.

SEC. 3. ELIGIBILITY FOR TRUTH IN SENTENCING INCENTIVE GRANTS.

    (a) In General.--Section 20102(b)(1) of the Violent Crime Control 
and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (42 U.S.C. 13702(b)(1)) is amended to 
read as follows:
            ``(1) Formula allocation.--
                    ``(A) In general.--Of amounts made available to 
                carry out this section, the Attorney General shall 
                allocate for each eligible State an amount equal to the 
                ratio that the number of part 1 violent crimes reported 
                by such State to the Federal Bureau of Investigation 
                for 1993 bears to the number of part 1 violent crimes 
                reported by all States to the Federal Bureau of 
                Investigation for 1993.
                    ``(B) Other states.--
                            ``(i) In general.--For each eligible State 
                        that has not enacted a statute meeting the 
                        requirements of clause (ii), the Attorney 
                        General shall reduce the amount allocated under 
                        subparagraph (A) by 25 percent.
                            ``(ii) Statute described.--A statute meets 
                        the requirements of this clause if it results 
                        in the elimination of parole, good time credit 
                        release, and any other form of early release 
                        for any person convicted of a part 1 violent 
                        crime, with early release permitted only by 
                        approval of the Governor of the State after a 
                        public hearing during which representatives of 
                        the public and the victims of the part 1 
                        violent crime at issue have had an opportunity 
                        to be heard regarding the proposed release.
                            ``(iii) Allocation.--The total amount of 
                        the reductions under clause (i) shall be 
                        allocated to each eligible State that has 
                        enacted a statute meeting the requirements of 
                        clause (ii) in accordance with the formula 
                        under subparagraph (A).''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
take effect 3 years after the date of enactment of this Act.
                                 <all>