[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 21 (Wednesday, March 2, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 2, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1440
 
                    TRUTH-IN-SENTENCING LEGISLATION

  (Mr. CHAPMAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CHAPMAN. Mr. Speaker, 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 
commensense 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.

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