[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 36 (Friday, March 15, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2179-S2180]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 CRIME

  Mr. DORGAN. Now, the issue of crime. People want good jobs in our 
country. They also want to feel safe, and ours is a country with a 
serious crime challenge. I have a crime clock which shows the problem 
we have. One murder every 23 minutes; one forcible rape every 5 
minutes; one robbery every 51 seconds; one aggravated assault every 28 
seconds. We have 23,000 murders in America every year, and 110,000 
rapes.
  This is a country with a serious crime problem. I have said on the 
floor many times, and I want to repeat it, that it does not take Dick 
Tracy to understand who is going to commit the next violent crime. It 
is someone who committed a previous violent crime, and, in most cases, 
someone who has been in prison and who has been released early.
  Earlier this week, I mentioned two recent cases, both of them in the 
Washington, DC, area. But I could stand up here and tell 3,400 similar 
stories, because 3,400 people have been murdered by people who should 
have been in prison and unable to murder anybody, but they were let out 
early. They were told that, since they behaved in prison, they would be 
let out early.
  Here are two of these cases. One involves a young woman named Bettina 
Pruckmayr from Washington, DC, a young attorney, 26 years old, just 
starting her career here in Washington, DC. She was allegedly abducted 
by a 38-year-old man named Leo Gonzales Wright on the evening of 
December 16. Mr. Wright abducted her and forced her to drive to an ATM 
machine. He has been linked to this crime through a bank security 
photo. He stabbed Bettina Pruckmayr, 38 times--7 times in the back, 3 
times in the neck, and elsewhere in the body with sufficient force to 
break her bones. He killed her brutally.
  Who is Leo Gonzales Wright, this man who allegedly killed Bettina 
Pruckmayr? This young attorney was killed by someone who should not 
have been able to kill an innocent person. He should have been in jail. 
He is a man who previously committed robbery, previously committed 
rape, previously committed murder, previously committed armed robbery. 
Despite rape, robbery, and murder, this man, at age 38, was walking 
around the streets of Washington, DC. In fact, after he was released 
early from prison, the police picked him up for selling drugs. But he 
was not put back in prison.

  It does not take Sherlock Holmes to figure out who will commit the 
next crime. It is someone who should have been in prison, like this 
alleged killer--who had murdered before, robbed before, raped before--
but who is walking the streets because someone in the criminal justice 
system said, ``We want to let you out of prison early''--and did. The 
result is a 26-year-old young attorney named Bettina is dead. It should 
not have happened.
  The second case involves a 13-year-old boy named Jonathan Hall, from 
Fairfax County, VA. I do not know much about Jonathan Hall except what 
I have heard on the news. Jonathan Hall was a young boy who was stabbed 
58 times and thrown in a pond for dead. When they found him, they found 
grass and dirt between his fingers because he apparently, with 58 stab 
wounds, had tried to pull himself out of the pond. He was not dead when 
he was thrown into the pond, but he died.
  The alleged killer of Jonathan is a fellow names James ``Buck'' 
Murray. James ``Buck'' Murray was sent to prison for murdering a cab 
driver a number of years ago. While he was in prison he was put on work 
release and he kidnapped a woman. Then, he murdered a fellow inmate. 
That is two murders and a kidnaping. And guess what? A few months ago 
he was walking the streets of Virginia, a free person, because the 
criminal justice system apparently felt it was OK that he could get out 
early. And now a 13-year-old boy is dead because a person who should 
have been in prison was walking the streets.
  There are 3,400 other murder stories just like these. I have had some 
arguments with the folks in my State about the criminal justice 
system's approach to letting people out early. Here are the early 
release policies of some States, which I bet most people do not know. I 
will not go through and name

[[Page S2180]]

all of the States. Here is a State near the top of the alphabet that 
says to a violent criminal, every year you serve in prison you get 540 
days off for good time. In other words, for every year you serve, you 
get out almost 2 years early. Serve 10 years--people say it is a big 
deal that we now say to violent criminals you have to serve 85 percent 
of their sentences. They get sentenced 10 years, they serve 85 percent 
of that time, and a violent criminal is out early. The average violent 
offender is now sentenced to a 20-year term and serves less than half 
of that sentence. The average person serving time in prison for murder 
in America serves only 7 years.
  The States say, ``If you are good in prison, we will let you out 
early.'' Then, people like Bettina and Jonathan and others get murdered 
because we decided we cannot afford to keep violent people in prison 
where they belong-- 180 days a year, good time credits for every year 
you serve, half a year off. Here is 180 days, 120 days, 365 days, 400 
days, 547 days. These are the number of days of good time that the 
States give to these people. ``If you are good in prison, no matter how 
violent you are, we let you out early.'' This has to stop. This sort of 
thing cannot continue in our country.

  If we, as a country cannot assure the safety of innocent people by 
deciding that those who commit violent acts, those who commit murder, 
will go to prison and stay there until the end of their sentence, if we 
cannot assure people we will keep these folks off the street, then we, 
in my judgment, have not done our job. Most of this has to do with 
State government. In fact, all of this does.
  Nobody is let out of the Federal system early. There is no automatic 
good time credit for being good in the Federal system. The last crime 
bill eliminated that because of my provision that said that we are 
going to get rid of good time. I want the States to do the same thing. 
If you are a violent criminal, no good time for good behavior. You are 
going to be sent to prison to be kept off the streets.
  I am introducing legislation next week called the SAFER Act, the Stop 
Allowing Felons Early Release Act. I want to distinguish between the 
felons in prison who are violent versus those who are not. I want 
prisoners who committed violent crimes to know that when they go in 
prison, they are going to stay in prison until the end of their term. 
My bill provides an incentive through the Federal truth in sentencing 
grant program to eliminate parole and good time credits for violent 
offenders.
  We have an amount of money under the truth in sentencing grant 
program for prison construction, and for other purposes, that is 
allocated to eligible States. I would reduce these grants by 25 percent 
for the States that have not decided to end early release for violent 
criminals. For those States who have decided they will end early 
release for violent criminals, they will participate fully in this 
grant program and receive an incentive payment.
  If a State decides it does not want to do that, that it wants to keep 
moving violent prisoners back to the streets, then they will lose a 
portion of this incentive grant program.
  My legislation is simple. It will not force the States to do 
anything, but it will say to them, with the amount of money that we are 
using here in the Congress, in the crime bill, we want to at least try 
to provide incentive to those States that do the right thing. The right 
thing is to start deciding all across this country, especially in the 
State criminal justice systems, that violent people sent to prison will 
stay in prison.
  It is probably hard to know how some of these families feel, 
especially when they discover their loved one has been killed by 
somebody who should not have been in a position to kill anybody. My 
mother was killed in a manslaughter incident. It was not the kind of 
incident I have described with Jonathan Hall and Bettina Pruckmayr, but 
I understand getting a telephone call about having a loved one involved 
in this kind of a crime, having a loved one lose her life in a violent 
crime. I can only imagine how families feel when they hear that their 
daughter or their mother or their son has been killed, and then they 
discover that the perpetrator was someone who has murdered two other 
people and spent a fraction of the time they should have spent in jail, 
but who, because the State let them out early, was in their 
neighborhood threatening their lives and their children's lives.
  This country has to do better than that. This country has to decide 
there are some criminals who, by their acts of violence, demonstrate 
that they deserve no good time, no early release. The American people 
deserve to have those people sentenced and put away in a prison cell 
until the end of their term.
  I hope very much that, as we discuss a crime bill this year and 
continue to work through the questions that confront the American 
people about jobs and crime and health care and education, and the 
range of issues that people care about and want us to do something 
about, we will take a look at this issue. Do we not have an obligation, 
when we have a person who has committed a murder, a kidnapping, another 
murder, to decide that this person does not deserve to be on our 
streets? Do we not have that responsibility? If the State governments 
do not exercise that responsibility, do we not have the right to try to 
provide some incentive and initiative there? I think we do.
  This issue of devolution that we are talking about now in the 
Congress is that the Federal Government cannot do anything right, so we 
should send it all back to the State and local governments. These cases 
I am talking about are all State cases. Nobody is getting out of the 
Federal prisons early to do this. We have determinate sentencing, and 
there is no good time because I saw to it.
  In the State judicial systems, you can earn up to 2 years off of your 
sentence for every year served. All you have to do is be good. Half of 
our prison population in America are nonviolent prisoners. Half of them 
are convicted of violent crimes. I want us as a country to distinguish 
between the two. I want prison cells open and available for those who 
have committed violent acts. Jonathan Hall should not be dead today, 
nor should Bettina Pruckmayr, nor should 3,400 other Americans killed 
by people let out early, who should have still been in prison. I hope 
we will discuss this at some great length this year as we discuss the 
crime bill.
  With that, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lugar). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to address the 
Senate as in morning business for 8 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The 
Senator from Iowa.

                          ____________________