[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 84 (Monday, June 10, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6013-S6015]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. ASHCROFT (for Mr. Dole (for himself, Mr. Hatch, Mr. Lott, 
        Mr. Ashcroft, Mr. Grassley,  and Mr. Inhofe)):
  S. 1854. A bill to amend Federal criminal law with respect to the 
prosecution of violent and repeat juvenile offenders and controlled 
substances, and for other purposes; to the Committee on the Judiciary.


      THE VIOLENT AND REPEAT JUVENILE OFFENDER REFORM ACT OF 1996

  Mr. ASHCROFT. Mr. President, it seems like the latest 
incomprehensible tragedy is only the next newspaper away. Today we have 
an epidemic of juvenile crime. It means that frequently students are 
unable to focus on their lessons as they seek to enhance their capacity 
to be of service to themselves, their family, and fellow man as they 
are in school. They are diverted and distracted because they have 
concerns about their own safety. They fear they might be robbed or 
raped. It is not a question of someone throwing spit balls. As a matter 
of fact, an 8-year-old girl from St. Louis wrote me that crime is real. 
It has to do with weapons. It has to do with people losing their lives. 
Young children are afraid. Citizens are afraid to leave their homes 
because they fear the senseless, mindless attack of predatory 
youngsters who have become a major threat to the personal security and 
integrity of individuals in our culture.
  We rejoice in the fact there has been some drop in overall crime 
rates. Frankly, crime rates had nowhere else to go, in general, but 
down. But they are coming down, and I am pleased by it. But I think it 
is important we not be deluded, we not be fooled. The fact that, 
overall, crime rates are coming down should not mask something which 
should alert us and should literally prompt us into significant 
response, and that is that, while, overall, crime rates are going down, 
juvenile crime rates have been skyrocketing. So those components of the 
crime rate which would signal what we can expect in the future are 
telling us to beware, to be alert, to brace ourselves, because between 
1988 and 1992, juvenile arrests for violent crime increased by 47 
percent while adult violent crime arrests increased only by 19 percent. 
So we had a 2.5-to-1 higher increase, higher explosion in growth in 
juvenile crime.
  Juvenile murders increased by 26 percent, forcible rapes by 41 
percent, juvenile robberies by 39 percent, aggravated assaults by 27 
percent--an exploding,

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growing, expanding threat to the safety and security and integrity of 
the population. Frequently, because we are talking about juveniles, we 
are finding these individuals are being sent back into classrooms. 
Teachers do not know what these individuals have done because juvenile 
records are most frequently sealed. Other students are not aware of the 
specific conduct, though they frequently know someone has been in 
trouble. So you get a tremendous wave of insecurity in the classroom.
  I think most of us understand, when we work on legislation here, we 
need a secure environment. We invest substantially in a secure 
environment here. Yet, when we are preparing the next generation to 
literally lead America, we have students in our public schools, and 
teachers, who are having constantly to look over their shoulders, 
unaware, not knowing, not confident, distressed, discomfited by the 
fact that we have frequently sent these folks right back into our 
schools. And our schools are unaware.
  I talked to a teacher who indicated she knew there were several 
people in her classroom who were being housed in a residential juvenile 
detention facility, sent into the school, some of them even having 
these electronic shackles, the bracelets they have to wear around their 
ankle that allows the law enforcement community to monitor their 
whereabouts. But these students would refuse to tell the teacher the 
kinds of crimes or offenses which they have been convicted of, so a 
teacher in the classroom looks at the student and the student says: You 
know I have been convicted of a crime but I am not going to tell you 
whether I raped someone or murdered someone or assaulted someone. You 
just cannot know that.
  I submit to you that is not a healthy environment. But it is not just 
the school environment for which we must be concerned. It is the 
environment in which we maintain our homes. It is the streets of 
America, which we must literally reclaim.
  I believe the Dole-Hatch bill, which I have just sent to the desk, is 
a much needed effort to curtail these astronomical growth numbers and 
to fulfill the first duty of government. We have gotten awfully 
expansive of government. We teach people how to raise flowers. We 
address a wide variety of issues--research. But the first, the 
fundamental duty of government, the reason for which government was 
initially convened, is to provide for the safety and security and the 
integrity, the dignity of individual human beings, so we can be free 
from assault, so we can have the potential of reaching the level of 
achievement for which God created us and for which God placed in us 
this potential.

  I believe we have to return to that fundamental. The Dole-Hatch bill 
is a bill which is designed to address violent juvenile criminal 
activity. It is designed to sweep away the sort of idea that it is 
something we can ignore or simply patch over. We have to address it 
constructively. It will remedy misguided Federal efforts to excuse 
juvenile behavior because people are just juveniles. It will begin to 
provide a basis for accountability.
  I have to say I understand there are a number of juveniles who will 
not become career criminals. We do not want them to. We would not make 
that any more likely with this bill. But I think, for very serious 
juvenile offenders, we have to send a serious signal to them about the 
nature of their activity.
  President Clinton yesterday warned of a potential wave of juvenile 
crime in the next 5 years. The truth of the matter is, it is not a 
wave, it is an explosion. The President recommended a so-called gentle 
combination of laws and prevention programs to deflect this onslaught 
of violent teens.
  I have to say I believe a gentle combination will not get the job 
done. I think we have to begin to treat criminals as criminals. For 
those individuals who commit rape, armed robbery, murder, armed 
assault, major drug offenses, we cannot have any more gentle 
approaches. We have to say you are going to have to stand for trial as 
an adult.
  The Federal Government's response, and President Clinton's response, 
his solution, is always to offer more money for social programs such as 
delinquency prevention, treatment, recreation. I have held hearings 
around my State. I know the Senator from Iowa has held hearings around 
his State. We have talked to juvenile officials, those who deal with 
the juveniles. We have talked to sheriffs. We have talked to 
prosecutors. We have heard them tell us how juvenile individuals who 
are involved in criminal acts are simply playing the system. They 
sometimes look forward to a juvenile detention facility. They know they 
can hide behind their status as juveniles, that they do not have to be 
really answerable for their activities.
  The administration has not been active in prosecuting those who have 
offended the Federal laws. There have only been 233 convictions in the 
Clinton administration of juveniles as adults. I think for the major 
categories of criminal activity when juveniles are committing crimes 
which, if committed by adults, would be felonies, we need a serious 
approach.
  One of the things that stunned me about the testimony of Prof. John 
DiIulio from Princeton, one of the leading criminologists in America, 
is his report that when he interviews inmates of major prisons, their 
main worry is about the young prisoners who are going to be sent in. 
They are so hardened as criminals and have been allowed to be so 
indiscriminate in their violence before they finally get thrown into 
jail that the old-time criminals are scared stiff. They are afraid of 
what is happening.
  Those on the inside, the old-time, long-time criminal element in our 
Nation's prison systems, are fearful because they see what we have done 
by turning our heads to activity, so long as it is conducted by a 
juvenile, and allowing individuals to harden their approach to the 
safety and security and integrity of other individuals, and they are 
afraid. America needs to respond, and it needs to respond dramatically.
  The Dole-Hatch bill, also cosponsored by Senator Lott and myself and, 
I am pleased to say, Senator Grassley is to be added as an original 
cosponsor of the bill, is a measure which would begin to focus the 
energy and resources of the Federal Government on this part of crime, 
which is exploding, this part of crime which is growing at an 
incredible rate: juvenile crime; violent repeat juvenile criminal 
behavior.
  The estimated total amount of Federal appropriations used for at-risk 
and delinquent youth was more than $4 billion last year. Of these 
billions sent to the States, a very few million were to be used for 
investigation, prosecution, and detention. It is time we looked 
carefully at how we can assist States and how we can carry our share of 
the load in the Federal Government as it relates to actually 
prosecuting those individuals who are guilty of committing acts which, 
if committed as adults, would be clearly and simply felonies.
  They threaten the lives of people, they undermine the security of 
their property, they destabilize and disrupt our educational process. 
It is something which we cannot tolerate, it is something with which we 
cannot be coddling, it is something with which we must be forthwith. We 
can do much more, and the Dole-Hatch bill is an enormous step in the 
right direction.
  Let me briefly give you some of the things that are important about 
the Dole-Hatch bill which I believe make it a very promising way to 
address this most serious problem.
  One of the difficulties in the area of juvenile laws is the fact that 
juvenile records frequently have been sealed. Proceedings of juveniles 
are closed proceedings. Records are not available. Teachers who have to 
deal with these individuals in schools do not know what they have on 
their hands.
  I talked to the sheriff--and I am sure my colleague from Iowa, 
Senator Grassley, has talked to local officials--but I talked to the 
sheriff in Moniteau County, MO. The biggest town in Moniteau County is 
California, MO. People say they are going to California in central 
Missouri. People do not think you are going to the west coast, they 
think you are going to California, MO. It is not a big town.
  I asked what his No. 1 crime problem was, and he said it was 
juveniles coming in from out of State trying to set up a drug operation 
in Moniteau County and he could not call the States from which these 
juveniles came and get their records, because there was a

[[Page S6015]]

big blanket of security, security for the criminal but not for the 
society, a blanket of nondisclosure over juvenile records. I think it 
is high time that when people commit felonious acts, when they are 
criminals, that we have an understanding of what they have done and 
then when they move on to another jurisdiction, we have to be able to 
find out what their history is.

  I talked to a judge not too long ago. He said he was sentencing an 
18-year-old for murder. He thought it was the individual's first 
offense. Inadvertently did he discover the individual was originally 
from the west coast and had a juvenile record that included other 
murders. I do not think it is fair to expect a judicial system to 
operate in relation to repeat offenders, repeat violent predators and 
to allow those repeat violent predators to have the presumption that 
they are first offenders when they have a rap sheet as long as from 
here to Chicago.
  The truth is, if those people do criminal acts, those acts ought to 
be made available to law enforcement officials, judges, schoolteachers 
and school officials, not only because we will know how to take steps 
to protect the other students and the school environment--that would be 
enough of a reason--but we can do our best to change the way people 
operate, we can do our best to help them redirect their lives if they 
are not allowed to hide under a shield of juvenile laws that keep their 
records from being known.
  A significant part of the Dole-Hatch proposal is that such records 
can be maintained and developed at Federal expense if such records are 
made available to law enforcement and school authorities, including 
those outside the State. The juvenile community in America is very 
mobile. The Bloods and the Crips are no longer focused on the seaboards 
of this country. I am sure they are in Oklahoma City, like they are in 
Kansas City and some, from time to time, are found in smaller cities of 
Missouri and across the United States of America.
  It is fundamentally important that we not provide this blanket of 
security for criminal activity; that we expose to the light of day the 
acts of individuals whose conduct threatens the very security and 
integrity and dignity of the American public and also threatens 
substantially our ability to operate our public schools. I, for one, am 
loath to see us fail to protect our public education system.
  Second, this measure provides States will get 50 percent more in 
funding if they prosecute as adults juveniles 14 or older who commit 
murder, rape, armed robbery, aggravated assault, and distribution of 
controlled substances. The funding will be substantially greater to 
States who decide to get serious.
  I do not think it is unfair at all for the Federal Government to say 
we are not interested in providing resources just for social programs. 
If we are really worried about the threat to the integrity, to the 
security, to the safety of our citizenry, then for States who are 
really serious about protecting them, we will provide more funding. 
States who are serious enough to provide real prosecutions will get 
additional funding.
  The bill establishes an Office of Juvenile Accountability to assist 
the States in the prosecution of offenders and in combating youth 
violence. To get funding, States would have to make reasonable efforts 
to ensure by 2002 that juvenile proceedings will be open to the public, 
that juvenile records will be made available to schools and law 
enforcement agencies, and that fingerprint records will be kept for all 
juvenile offenders.
  The idea that we have repeat, serious predatory criminals who are not 
fingerprinted because they are juveniles and we do not have the 
capacity to follow their activities and to monitor what they are doing 
is an idea whose time has passed. It is time for us to understand that 
it is not spitballs in the hall and it is not just truancy. We have 
major criminal activity, and we should respond to it as such.
  Reform of the Federal juvenile justice system would be included here. 
It would hold juveniles 13 or older accountable as adults for the 
commission of violent crimes, such as murder and robbery, drug 
trafficking, or if they have been adjudicated delinquent on three 
previous offenses which, if the activity had been committed by an 
adult, would have been felonies.
  What we are really talking about here is focusing our attention on 
those juveniles who have been extremely disruptive and violent and who 
have decided that they can game or take advantage of the system, and, 
when they take advantage of the system, to hide under it as juveniles. 
We have to say there is no hiding place down here. We simply have to 
say very clearly, ``If you're going to make a conscious decision to be 
involved in criminal activity, then you'll be treated as a criminal, 
not as a juvenile.''

  Note what we do not do here. We do not say that everyone's first 
encounter with the law, if it is for some kind of activity which is not 
serious, automatically puts them into the adult criminal system. Ninety 
percent of all the juveniles that encounter our system encounter it 
once. They have learned their lesson.
  This system does not do anything to deal with those individuals 
unless they have committed murder, rape, armed robbery, armed assault, 
or major drug trafficking crimes. And you are pretty sure that is not a 
first encounter of someone with the system. So for the individuals in 
our juvenile justice system for whom the system has worked, this system 
does not affect them. But it begins to say, for those in the 10 percent 
that are involved in the serious, repeat, predatory, violent crimes of 
rape, armed robbery, armed assault, murder, major drug trafficking, 
those individuals are to be treated as criminals because they are 
involved in criminal activity.
  It is my judgment that it is beyond time for us to recognize that the 
times have changed, that criminal activity and juvenile delinquency is 
not what it once was. It is a new category of offense. It demands a new 
category of response.
  The same responses that have worked in the past will not work in the 
future, not unless we are willing to accept the tidal wave, this 
explosion of countercultural crime. It is against the culture which 
says crime is going down overall. It is countercultural because it is 
going up dramatically.
  We owe it to every man, woman, and child in America to do what we can 
to protect their integrity for their personal safety, the safety and 
security of their property as well as their persons. We owe it to every 
schoolteacher. We owe it to every schoolchild. We owe it to individuals 
who are trying to prepare themselves for a future in these United 
States of America so they can build these United States of America 
rather than tear down these United States of America. We owe them 
schools that are safe enough in which to learn.
  The Dole-Hatch bill, which addresses the core problem of violent, 
hard-core, repeat juvenile offenders, will do exactly that. It focuses 
the resources on investigation and prosecution. It does not focus the 
resources where we have had $4 billion spent previously, coinciding 
with the explosion of juvenile crime in the culture. It does not deny 
that effort that is being made to try to provide the right 
reinforcements and support for individuals who want to stay straight, 
but it says that effort can no longer characterize solely what we are 
doing.
  We must be willing to get involved in investigation, prosecution, 
detention, and punishment for individuals involved in predatory crimes 
which deprive us of our security, of our integrity and our safety. And 
we must treat those who choose to be criminals as criminals in order to 
address this serious problem.
  So I am pleased to have this opportunity to submit the Dole-Hatch 
measure addressing this serious problem of violent, repeat, hard-core 
juvenile offenders and to commend the majority leader and the chairman 
of the Judiciary Committee for this farsighted measure, which will take 
serious steps to curtail this threat to the liberty which all Americans 
have a right to enjoy.
                                 ______