[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 115 (Tuesday, August 16, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 16, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                    THE CRIME BILL IS WELL BALANCED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
February 11, 1994, and June 10, 1994, the gentleman from California 
[Mr. Miller] is recognized during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, Members of the House, the 
gentleman that preceded me in the well talked about the tragedy of 
Polly Klaas when our community in northern California was rocked by her 
kidnap and her violent death and how somehow this bill would not be 
helpful in that situation, and yet her father was at the White House 
yesterday supporting this legislation because he recognizes that this 
legislation has a very tough provision on three strikes and you are out 
for serious violent crimes.
  It also recognizes, as does the President and as do the people of 
this country, this bill is a well-proportioned bill that provides some 
$13 billion for law enforcement, for the needs that the law enforcement 
community has told this Congress, told the President, and told others 
that it needs in response to the crime on our streets. It provides over 
$8 billion for construction of new prisons, so that we can start to 
keep people off the streets for a longer period of time that have 
engaged in violent activity against our citizens. It also provides 
money for States to help them construct some prisons if those States 
enter into an agreement to provide that people will serve at least 85 
percent of their sentences, and it also provides some $8 billion for 
prevention programs.
  I do not know what other Members of Congress have been doing, but I 
have been meeting with my district attorneys, with my chiefs of police, 
with my sheriffs, with other law enforcement individuals in the 
district that I represent, and they have demanded more prisons, they 
have demanded more resources for law enforcement, but they have also 
demanded that they be given additional tools where they can work in 
conjunction with recreational agencies, with our schools, with the 
boys' and girls' clubs to try to create activities to provide a 
diversion and to provide an outlet for young people in many communities 
where there simply are no resources for those people through most of 
the day. This is about prevention.
  My colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to keep talking 
about the social workers. This is not about social workers. This is 
about coaches and teachers and recreational individuals that work in 
some of our toughest neighborhoods trying to provide some alternatives. 
Yes, it includes midnight basketball, which includes the requirements 
that you sign up to work for your high school equivalency, that you get 
engaged in a counseling program to try to help you find work, and you 
can also play basketball as the organizing principle to bring these 
young people together where we can start to provide and inform them of 
some alternatives to their life on the streets.
  This legislation is tougher on crime, and it is tough on crime 
prevention. This bill provides that kind of balance. It recognizes the 
needs of our community.
  Mayor Giuliani of New York was on TV today, and he made a very 
important point. He said he did not know a lot about the rhetoric 
surrounding this bill, but he knew the needs of his city and of most of 
the cities in this country, and what they needed was this legislation 
to provide them the tools of dealing with crime in our environment on a 
daily basis on the streets of America, not as we would like it to be in 
the Halls of Congress.

                             {time}   1040

  Not as we would like it to be in the Halls of Congress, not as we 
would like to see it as we trade facts back and forth between the two 
parties, but based upon his experience as a prosecutor and now his 
experience as mayor of our largest city; joined in by Mayor Riordan of 
Los Angeles, supporting this legislation, the mayor of Philadelphia 
saying we need these programs; the mayor of Chicago.
  We need these programs to try and provide some opportunity, to extend 
our school hours, to take the school buildings of our Nation and expand 
them as a resource after hours. But schools do not have the money to do 
that. School boards do not have the money. But maybe we can knit that 
together out of some assistance from the Federal Government, the States 
and local agencies, so that those schools can remain open, as they did 
when I was a young person.
  There was no question where I could go after school. I could hang out 
at my school, play kickball, volleyball, baseball, I could go to 
tutoring, I could go to study hall. It was available.
  It is not available today. That is why this program addresses those 
who prey on our society, by lengthening prison terms, by building more 
prisons, by making sure they serve their sentence and making sure that 
those who choose to do it more than twice pay on ``three strikes and 
you're out'' with a life sentence.
  That is why this bill goes to the issue of making room for violent 
criminals, by deciding that those who are in jail because of a 
nonviolent, minor drug arrest can be let out of jail so we can put a 
violent individual who threatens our neighborhoods, threatens our 
families, away for a long period of time.
  I would hope the Congress, along with the American public, will 
support this legislation.

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