[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 64 (Friday, May 20, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 20, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                  CONGRESSIONAL FIELD HEARING ON CRIME

                                 ______


                          HON. DAVID E. PRICE

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, May 20, 1994

  Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to report to 
my colleagues on a special congressional field hearing that took place 
in Raleigh, NC, on April 11, 1994.
  The field hearing was conducted under the auspices of the 
Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State, Judiciary and 
Related Agencies and focused on the topics of crime, crime prevention 
and law enforcement. I am grateful to Chairman Neal Smith for 
authorizing the hearing and to my colleague and fellow-member of the 
subcommittee, Jim Moran, for traveling to North Carolina to help 
conduct the hearing.
  Representative Moran and I received testimony from three panels of 
expert witnesses on the topics of youth and crime, law enforcement, and 
innovations. In addition to the panels of experts, North Carolina 
Governor Jim Hunt and North Carolina Attorney General Mike Easley 
appeared as independent witnesses.
  The most riveting testimony of the day came from the four teenagers 
who opened the hearing, two from local high schools and two from a 
State detention center.
  Jason Otey of Garner High School and Kathy Oates of Millbrook High 
School were members of a teenage focus group constituted after a tragic 
shooting at one of my district's high schools. They told of the 
troubling level of violence in our schools and of the alarming number 
of young people coming to school or school activities with weapons. 
They reported favorably on having police officers accessible in the 
schools and on peer mediation programs where students are trained to 
help other students resolve conflicts without violence.
  Two other teenagers talked to the subcommittee only as Kwame and 
Israel, because they and their parents had given informed consent to 
come from juvenile detention and give us the view of youth in trouble 
with the law. Brought to our hearing by juvenile correction officers in 
leg shackles, these two articulate young men gave compelling testimony 
that was difficult for the adult witnesses that followed to match.
  Kwame silenced the audience in describing the constancy and easy 
availability of drugs, weapons, and opportunities to commit crime on 
the street and the lack of competing positive influences. ``It's easier 
to get a gun than to get a tutor,'' he said.

       You are bumping right into [criminal activity]; it is in 
     your face every time you walk out the door. But there is not 
     a job in your face [or] a tutor in your face to say let me 
     help you in your school * * *. There is a person that says 
     let me sell you this gun, let me give you this crack, let's 
     go smoke some blanks * * *. there is a way out, but it is a 
     struggle. You have to struggle a lot harder for the way out 
     than for the way in [to trouble]. So I just chose the way in.

  After the teenagers had concluded part I of the panel on children and 
crime, we heard from several expert witnesses: Dr. Mike Durfee, the 
founder and medical director of Wake Teen Medical Services, who 
provides medical and counseling services to many teenagers in juvenile 
detention, spoke of the need to emphasize prevention programs. Dr. 
Durfee had also participated in a health care forum I hosted in 
January, and he cited statistics about juvenile detention from the 
1980's indicating that 87 percent of youngsters in juvenile detention 
had health care problems, and in many cases, two to three health care 
problems.
  Reggie Flythe, a teacher and counselor at East Cary Middle School, 
who works with school violence reduction programs, talked about the 
problems of alcohol and drug abuse, teen pregnancy, suicide, rape, 
robbery, and assaults facing many teachers today in rural, suburban and 
urban settings. He pointed out the successes of student peer mediation 
program he has worked with in reducing in-school suspension numbers and 
defusing volatile situations.
  Flo Stein, assistant chief for substance abuse programs of the 
Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance 
Abuse Services, described the various ways children are affected by 
drug abuse, starting before birth, and the subsequent link to crime by 
youths. She also emphasized the importance of State and local agencies 
involved with children communicating and working together.
  Sheila Sholes-Ross, director of comprehensive adolescent health 
services at the University of North Carolina Center for Early 
Adolescence, who provides technical assistance to crime prevention 
programs oriented to youth around the State. She described the sporting 
chance after-school and summer program which has provided a second 
chance for first-time offenders by focusing on counseling, supervised 
recreational activities, and conflict resolution.
  Ilene Nelson, administrator of the Guardian Ad Litem Program Services 
Division, Administrative Office of the Court, spoke in support of the 
Federal Court Appointed Special Advocate [CASA] appropriation and 
Victims of Crime Act funding in order to represent abused and neglected 
children. She also advocated changes in title IV-E of the Social 
Security Act which she believed would enhance the permanence of 
guardianship relationships and provide more flexible transition 
assistance from adolescence to adulthood.

  Charles Dunn, director of the justice for children task force and 
former director of the State bureau of investigation, emphasized the 
importance of strengthening families and the establishment of family 
resource centers, and urged a congressional review of all programs, 
especially social, housing and educational programs, to determine their 
impact on families.
  After the children's panel, Governor Jim Hunt gave testimony about 
North Carolina's crime problems and the solutions proposed by his 
administration and ratified by the North Carolina General Assembly 
during a special session completed in early April. He also emphasized 
the need to fully fund the Byrne Grant Program which North Carolina and 
other States are using effectively in partnership with local 
communities in developing crime-fighting initiatives.
  We then convened our second panel on the subject of law enforcement. 
Compelling testimony was heard from a number of local law enforcement 
officials, including Don Whitt, sheriff of Chatham County, and Lindy 
Pendergrass, sheriff of Orange County. Sheriff Pendergrass told of the 
work his department does with the U.S. Marshals Service and how the 
Cooperative Agreement Program has enabled Orange County to expand its 
jail to serve Federal needs as well as local demands.
  Alana Ennis, chief of police for the University of North Carolina at 
Chapel Hill told of the special needs of college and university 
communities throughout the Triangle area and of cooperative ties with 
Federal and other Law enforcement agencies.
  Joe Schulte, the FBI agent-in-charge of the Charlotte, NC office, 
said that North Carolina was a microcosm of crime problems nationwide, 
and that hundreds of bank robberies were a particular problem, although 
the FBI experienced a higher-than-average or 75 percent clearance rate 
for these crimes. He also outlined several task forces underway with 
Federal, State, and local law enforcement cooperating in targeting 
violent crime, drug trafficking, and health insurance fraud.
  Janic Cole, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, 
gave an overview of all Federal law enforcement efforts underway in 
North Carolina including BATF, DEA, FBI, and the IRS among other 
Federal agencies. She also emphasized the usefulness of multidistrict 
task forces to bring the various puzzle pieces to the table across 
jurisdictional lines, and the effectiveness of tougher Federal 
sentencing and parole standards in keeping repeat criminals behind 
bars.
  At the completion of the law enforcement panel, we heard testimony 
from the Attorney General of North Carolina, Mike Easley. Easley gave a 
statistical outline of crime in North Carolina, citing an alarming rise 
in violent crime relative to other States. He expressed support for 
several components of the Federal crime bill which would complement 
initiatives underway in North Carolina, including those passed by the 
recent General Assembly session, to cope with crime.
  After a brief lunch break, we convened the third and final panel of 
expert witnesses on the subject of Innovations, both in law enforcement 
and in crime prevention.
  Thurman Hampton, secretary of the North Carolina Department of Crime 
Control and Public Safety, spoke of the experimentation and innovation 
resulting from Federal funding of State and local initiatives to create 
advances in juvenile justice services, drug control and rehabilitation, 
prison reform, drug testing protocols, alternatives to incarceration, 
and improved sharing of information among criminal justice agencies. He 
advocated full funding of Edward Byrne Memorial Grant Program to 
continue such initiatives.
  Frank Jackson, an assistant district attorney, told about the use of 
Byrne grant funds to administer the dangerous offender task force, 
which has produced a greater than 95 percent conviction rate and 
reduced significantly the time for arrest to disposition by lessening 
attorney case loads and providing for guaranteed court time to try 
cases for targeted criminals.
  John Taylor, commandant of the IMPACT, or boot camp unit, testified 
about the operation and effectiveness of North Carolina's demonstration 
program, which has recently doubled in size. He cited the effectiveness 
of such alternatives to regular prison for first-time criminals who 
respond to the strict discipline and still have the capacity to change.
  Master Officer Kimberly A. Halsaver, with the CLEAN unit [Community 
Law Enforcement Against Narcotics] of the Raleigh Police Department, 
told about the operation and success of Raleigh's community policing 
initiative. Raleigh's newest innovation is a community-based police 
ministation that will operate as a demonstration at two community 
housing projects.
  Catherine Smith, executive director of the North Carolina Victim 
Assistance Network [VAN], related the many services provided by her 
organization to victims of crime and for education of the public. She 
pointed to the Byrne Program as the original source of funds for hiring 
an executive director for North Carolina VAN, and also cited drug 
control system improvement moneys as essential to a recent survey of 
compliance with North Carolina's Fair Treatment of Victims and 
Witnesses Act.
  Annette Sheppard, director of advocacy and community education, 
Orange/Durham Coalition for Battered Women, told of the compelling 
needs in domestic violence cases and the services provided by her 
organization. She cited the importance of Federal funding from the 
Victims of Crime Act, and emphasized that needs in this area went 
beyond shelters to community education, training and prevention 
programs in schools, and court advocacy.
  Mike Rieder, director of Haven House, outlined a variety of programs 
operated by his organization, partially funded by Federal agencies, 
including a runaway shelter using funds from the Runaway and Homeless 
Youth Act, Transitional Living funds for homeless youth, Preparation 
for Independent Living, and youth enrichment services and family 
preservation. He outlined various criteria for developing programs 
including flexibility, treating clients as customers, and being 
results-oriented, community-based, and family-oriented.
  Finally, Ron Hawley, chair of the working group on crime prevention 
applications of the North Carolina information highway, told about some 
exciting plans to use this new technology to assist law enforcement 
personnel with criminal identification and recordkeeping. He spoke of 
using Byrne grant money for passing information between the 
Administrative Office of the Courts and the State bureau of 
investigation, and further linking that information with the Department 
of Corrections and the Division of Criminal Information as well as 
drivers license information. The information highway would be the 
enabler, but it would still require a tremendous effort to coordinate 
the agencies to provide key information at the proper time.
  The subcommittee received significant first-hand information 
regarding the use of Federal appropriations in its jurisdiction, and a 
useful hearing record has been produced for the use of the 
Appropriations Committee and other interested Members of Congress. I 
thank all of those who organized and participated in this hearing, for 
it will help us appropriate more intelligently for the coming year.

                          ____________________