[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 18 (Monday, January 30, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1791-S1792]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        ON PRISON WARDEN SURVEY

 Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, there has been much talk recently 
about rewriting last year's Federal crime bill. That talk has focused 
on spending billions more for prison construction and longer sentences, 
while drastically reducing funds for prevention programs.
  I urge my colleagues to think hard about whether these changes 
represent smart policy. Last month, I conducted a survey of 157 
wardens, and I asked them to comment on our present crime policies. By 
large margins, the wardens warned that our overwhelming emphasis on 
building prisons just isn't working. They urged a far more balanced 
approach to crime-fighting, that mixes punishment, prevention, and 
treatment.
  The Daily Southtown, in a recent editorial, called on Congress to 
listen to the advice of these experts, rather than moving rapidly ahead 
with policies that may be politically popular, but ultimately 
shortsighted. That is a message we would all do well to heed.
  I ask that this editorial be reprinted following my remarks.
  The editorial follows:
                [From the Daily Southtown, Dec. 8, 1994]

    Wardens' View on Crime: Mandatory Sentencing Won't Solve Problem

       Is ``locking them up and throwing away the key'' the most 
     effective approach to reducing crime? Not if you listen to 
     the prison wardens across the country who are in charge of 
     the nation's inmates.
       Some 157 prison wardens were surveyed by a U.S. Senate 
     subcommittee, and 85 percent of them said the politically 
     popular approach--mandatory, longer incarceration--didn't 
     work.
       The survey was conducted at the request of Sen. Paul Simon 
     (D-Ill.). The survey showed that ``the idea we can solve our 
     crime problem by putting more people in prison just has not 
     worked,'' Simon said. The senator said most of the wardens 
     favored approaches 
     [[Page S1792]] that mixed prevention, treatment and 
     punishment. Sixty-five percent said they preferred increasing 
     sentences for violent criminals and cutting sentences for 
     non-violent inmates.
       Some 92 percent favored placing non-violent drug offenders 
     in residential treatment programs, halfway houses, home 
     detention and boot camps rather than prisons. And contrary to 
     the rhetoric that proved so popular in the November election, 
     the wardens said they wanted programs in prison for drug 
     treatment, vocational training and educational programs.
       Simon said he asked for the survey because he feared the 
     new Republican majority in Congress would rewrite the 1994 
     crime bill to remove prevention and treatment programs and 
     replace them with more costly punishment approaches.
       Our elected officials ought to give some serious thought to 
     the recommendations of the experts--the people who run our 
     prisons--rather than setting new policies based on what would 
     serve the politicians best in future elections.
     

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