[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 33 (Tuesday, March 22, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 22, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
             BALANCED APPROACH URGED TO OMNIBUS CRIME BILL

  (Mr. TUCKER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. TUCKER. Mr. Speaker, this week we are going to address the 
important issue of a crime bill across this country, an omnibus crime 
bill.
  Mr. Speaker, all of us know that crime is perhaps the number one 
issue that faces this country, but as we debate and as we discuss this 
issue this week, Mr. Speaker, let us be smart and intelligent about a 
crime bill for this country. Let us not just be reactionary and say 
that the answer to the problem is putting everyone in prison.
  Yes, we have to create more prisons; yes, we have to have stiffer 
penalties, but at the same time we have to realize, Mr. Speaker, that 
crime is not the sickness that is plaguing this country. Crime is the 
symptom. And we have to understand that unemployment, undereducation, 
miseducation are still problems that plague this country.
  We built more prisons in the 1980's than any country in the world and 
we still have the highest crime rate.
  Mr. Speaker, when are we going to get educated and when are we going 
to learn that crime is just the symptom? Let us have a balanced 
approach to the omnibus crime bill this week.

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