[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 135 (Friday, August 11, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12328-S12329]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                            MAXIMUM SECURITY

  Mr. GRAMS. Mr. President, there is a new Federal facility in the town 
of Florence, CO--about 100 miles southwest of Denver--that I wish to 
tell you about.
  It was dedicated only last January, without a lot of fanfare, and 
most people have probably never heard of it. But if you are invited for 
a visit, it is a request you cannot refuse, and an experience you will 
likely never forget.
  This new complex is the U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum 
Facility--or the Super Max, for short--and already, it has become known 
as the Alcatraz of the Rockies.
  It is a place where the guests check in, but they do not check out, 
at least not on their own.
  The Super Max is the most secure prison in the Nation. A $60 million, 
state-of-the-art, high-technology fortress of steel, concrete, and 
barbed wire.
  It is where the worst of the worst are shipped to when society 
decides they can no longer be tolerated. It is a place where these most 
violent offenders are strictly controlled. It is a place where everyone 
is watched; where everyone is monitored.
  To call the Super Max cold and unfriendly would be a profound 
understatement. Visitors to the highest-security prison in the Nation 
first notice the fences--12-foot fences crowned with razor wires. They 
see the six guard towers, and the rolls of razor wire, and the armed 
guards who are not only authorized to use their weapons, but are 
instructed to shoot to kill.
  To enter the facility itself, the walls of which are reinforced with 
seven layers of steel and cement, visitors must pass through metal 
detectors. Their hands are stamped with a secret code in ultraviolet 
dye--that is to keep inmates from escaping by impersonating visitors.
  Mr. President, this is what you will find in a prison that has been 
labeled ``the end of the line'' for the Nation's hardcore offenders.
  You might think that the incredible security measures undertaken at 
the Colorado Super Max would be unique among Federal facilities. After 
all, where else except a maximum security prison, home to some of 
society's most malicious predators, would such intense restrictions 
need to be in effect?
  If you thought that, however, you would be wrong. There is another 
Federal compound with a security arrangement that is equally complex. 
There are armed guards with dogs, cement barriers, an extensive network 
of closed-circuit TV monitors, marked and unmarked pursuit vehicles, 
metal detectors and x ray scanners, signs, and barricades.
  But the guests who spend time in this Federal complex are not Mafia 
bosses, they are not convicted spies, hit men, drug kingpins, or arms 
smugglers. They are not dangerous, either, and they certainly do not 
deserve the intense security measures they are subjected to.
  They are average Americans who come here, to the U.S. Capitol 
Building, to see their Government at work 

[[Page S 12329]]
and visit us, their representatives in Congress.
  And look how we greet them--not with signs of welcome, but with 
security arrangements which rival those of the Super Max, the most 
security-conscious prison in America.
  Mr. President, earlier this week, my staff made an informal survey 
around the Capitol and the Senate office buildings. We wanted to see 
this place through the eyes of a tourist, one of the 15 million 
Americans who visit us every year.
  And what we found was shocking and disappointing: 27 armed police 
officers, one with a dog, patrolling the grounds, checking 
identification, and searching car trunks; 33 retractable traffic 
barriers, designed to allow only certain vehicles access to Capitol 
Hill parking areas; 26 portable concrete barricades--when these are in 
place, no vehicles can get past; 34 portable traffic signs, labeled 
``Stop'' or ``Do Not Enter''; 4 permanent guard boxes staffed with 
armed sentries; police cruisers, marked and unmarked; dozens of metal 
racks stamped ``U.S. Government'' blocking areas of the Capitol terrace 
once open to visitors; yards of rope, limiting access between sections 
of the Capitol grounds; yards of yellow tape reading ``Police Line--Do 
Not Cross''; and perhaps ugliest of all, 758 enormous, round, concrete 
barricades thinly disguised as flower pots, rimming the entire Capitol 
complex.
  That is just outside. Once inside our buildings, tourists will find: 
Checkpoints at 20 entrances where their handbags and personal 
belongings are analyzed by x ray scanners.
  A battery of 30 metal detectors through which visitors must pass. If 
metal is found--and often it is, but mostly keys and coins--our guests 
are subjected to an embarrassing search with a hand-held metal 
detector--a search I have heard many women complain about.
  There were 9 plainclothed officers, guarding the entrances to the 
House and Senate floors and visitors galleries; uniformed police 
officers--58 of them the day we checked--armed with guns and batons, 
watching everyone; and a video surveillance network that watches 
everyone, too.
  Mr. President, that is how we welcome visitors to their own Capitol: 
not with open arms, but by daring them to come.
  And just what are we trying to say to the American people when the 
battery of security measures used to control them as tourists rival the 
harsh measures used to control the most dangerous prisoners at the 
Nation's highest-security prison?
  What are we afraid of, Mr. President? Terrorists? Unfortunately, 
these security arrangements--many of which have been upgraded in the 
wake of the tragic bombing in Oklahoma City--would have little effect 
against a well-planned terrorist attack. I am afraid that we are 
perhaps using the horror of the Oklahoma City bombing as an excuse to 
further restrict the access of average Americans to their government, 
and if we are, well, that is wrong.
  Who suggested such an unwarranted assault on our visitors? Who put 
such a gestapo plan into effect? And most importantly, who in the 
administration or here in the Senate approved such a plan to barricade 
Capitol Hill, adding hundreds of new, armed guards?
  Let me just say how much respect I have for the men and women of the 
Capitol Police force, and for the incredible effort they put forth each 
and every day. As individuals, and as a department, they have and 
deserve our deepest thanks.
  My concerns are not directed at them. I want to quote Sgt. Dan 
Nichols, spokesman for the Capitol Police, when he was asked about the 
new security arrangements. Sergeant Nichols said:

       People need access to their government. But they also need 
     to be protected. There is a saying we go by--free access and 
     security are basically opposing concepts. You can only 
     increase one at the expense of the other.

  Sergeant Nichols is exactly right. I believe we have erred too far on 
the side of security. With every new fence we put up, and every armed 
officer we station in front of it, we jeopardize a little bit more of 
the freedom symbolized by this great building.
  This gleaming ``jewel on the hill'' is ever so slowly being 
transformed into Alcatraz on the Potomac.
  What are we afraid of?
  Very few Americans will ever be offered a guided tour of the U.S. 
Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, CO. But once 
they have visited Washington, DC and make the trip to Capitol Hill, 
they will have a very good sense of the daily atmosphere at a maximum-
security prison.
  And that realization, Mr. President, ought to make them heartsick.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Coverdell). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I thank the Chair.
  (The remarks of Mr. DeWine pertaining to the introduction of S. 1190 
are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
  Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I thank the Chair.
  (The remarks of Mr. DeWine pertaining to the introduction of S. 1197 
are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence 
of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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