[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 31 (Thursday, February 16, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H1903-H1904]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


              A DISCUSSION OF THE CRIME PROBLEM IN AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Foley] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to request the House 
for 5 minutes and revise and extend my remarks.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from North Carolina for giving 
me an opportunity to proceed ahead.
  I also want to commend the gentleman from Pensacola [Mr. Scarborough] 
for his brilliant testimony before the House and his compassion with 
which he has brought his efforts from the great State of Florida to 
this body.
  But I want to spend a moment of the discussion on crime. We have had 
a great deal of debate over the last week and a half on an issue that 
plagues America, and that is the crime in our country. A murder is 
committed in the United States every 21 minutes, a rape every 5 
minutes, a robbery every 46 seconds, an aggravated assault every 29 
seconds, a burglary every 10 seconds, and a larceny theft every 4 
seconds.
  That is a sad commentary on our country. That is a sad part of 
America's heritage that we must change.
  On average, violent offenders are released from prison, receive a 
sentence and serve an average of 7.8 years, but they only serve 3.1. 
More than 40 percent of murderers released from State prisons are 
arrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within 3 years. A 40-
percent recidivism rate. More than 20 percent are arrested for violent 
crimes within 3 years, and 1 in 15 is arrested for another homicide. At 
least 30 percent of murders are committed by people on probation, 
parole, or bail.
  Another sad commentary is violent crimes by juveniles. Of those 
arrested for violent crimes between 1987 and 1992, 29 percent were 
under the age of 19. Between 1985 and 1991, the number of 15-year-olds 
arrested for murder jumped 217 percent. We had the sad tragedy in 
Florida of a British tourist being killed. The perpetrator, alleged 
perpetrator, of that crime had been arrested 53 times. Fifty-three 
times he had been arrested. Sadly enough, the person was 13 years old 
that is accused of committing the murders on those British tourists.

                              {time}  1620

  How are we going to change the statistics in our country? How are we 
going to ensure that our young people are safe on our street? How can 
we look at our families and our communities across America and give 
them some assurance that they can walk to the mall in their local 
communities, that they can take the dog out for a walk? That they can 
feel comfortable going to their car in a parking garage in an office 
structure throughout our cities? How can we be as certain of that 
safety for America?
  We have enacted some very, very strong issues this week on the floor:
  H.R. 3, Victim Restitution Act. I told you on the floor of what 
happened to me when my home was broken into years ago, and the young 
fellow, the juvenile, had been arrested 17 times, 17 separate 
occasions. The father came to the courtroom and said, ``Your honor, 
we're trying, our son's a good boy.'' And each time the judge would 
allow probation for the child who had robbed 17 homes.
  On this particular occasion, the judge looked down from the bench, 
the father started that same excuse, the judge looked down and said,

       Let me make you a deal, sir. Mr. Foley has lost $3,000 
     because of your son and he can't seem to remember where the 
     merchandise is 
[[Page H1904]] from his home. I'll make you a deal. You be here with a 
check made payable to the clerk for $3,000 by noon tomorrow. If you're 
not here at 12:01, there will be a bench warrant issued for you and 
your son and I'll put you both in jail until you decide who's going to 
be boss of the family.

  With that the father hits the kid in the head and said, ``Look what 
you got me into.'' It took money out of the father's pocket to make him 
recognize he was responsible for his son.
  That is what we are doing with victim restitution, making the victim 
whole from their tragedy, from their loss, having the criminal repay 
not only their debt to society by serving time but paying the victim 
back for their losses.
  The Criminal Alien Deportation Act is something very important to me, 
because 5,500 people that are locked in the prisons of Florida are 
illegally in our country. The bill we passed last week will allow for 
deportation prior to their sentence completion back to their countries.
  What do we do now? We allow them to serve the time in jail, then we 
release them and give them a hearing date to come back for a 
deportation hearing. They are criminals, they are not returning to a 
courtroom to be deported out of this country. They disappear; 48,000 
failed to appear last year alone under that scenario.
  Our bill provides that they can be deported from inside the jail cell 
to their countries, not allowed to roam the street, not allowed to 
commit other crimes. That is going to make big headway in the problems 
in America. It will also open up beds so that we can keep the rapists 
and murderers out of our prisons.
  Local government law enforcement block grants, sending the money to 
the States and allowing them to decide what is the most important 
crime-fighting mechanism within their community.
  These are a number of the things that we enacted this week. But 
something strikes me that we did not discuss what we need to discuss in 
America and we need to discuss it forcefully, is the protection of our 
children from sexual exploitation and sexual violence.
  Sean from my office told me that there is an incident that is going 
to be reported tomorrow morning in the paper in our community about 
child pornography and the people that were involved. Once again we read 
in the headlines of another child dying or being abused or used in such 
a nasty and disgusting way that we allow our children to fall prey to 
these types of people.
  These are the things that we must fight as Americans. We must protect 
our children from sexual violence, sexual abuse. We need to act 
together as a Congress to make certain that the children today and in 
the future know that they are safe, know that they will not be abused 
and feel comfortable in this great country of ours, in America.


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