[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 43 (Tuesday, April 19, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 19, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
          SUPPORT THE PRYCE-STUPAK AMENDMENT TO THE CRIME BILL

  (Mr. STUPAK asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. STUPAK. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the Pryce-
Stupak amendment to H.R. 4092, the crime bill. Our amendment prohibits 
the use of free weights by, and the teaching of self-defense to, 
Federal prison. This amendment will go a long way toward ensuring a 
higher degree of workplace safety for our corrections officers.
  In last year's Easter riot at the Lucasville Prison, inmates used 
free weights to batter down a concrete wall protecting guards. This 
enabled the inmates to take 11 guards hostage. One of those 11 guards 
was murdered. Last month, inmates used weight-lifting equipment as 
weapons against corrections officers in a riot at Rikers Island Prison 
in New York. One guard was beaten within an inch of his life with a 50 
pound weight.
  We must do a better job to ensure that the danger associated with 
working in prisons is minimized. We must do more to ensure that these 
dedicated correctional officers can tell their families, with some 
degree of certainty, that they'll be home at the end of the day. The 
Pryce-Stupak amendment is not the singular solution to the increasing 
violence against correctional officers by bigger, stronger bulked up 
prisoners. But this is an amendment, in the right direction, and will 
help to send the message that prison is for punishment and 
rehabilitation, not a place to refine the skills that landed one in 
prison.
  I would urge all of my colleagues to support the Pryce-Stupak 
amendment to the crime bill.

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