[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 72 (Tuesday, May 18, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5463-S5464]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                JUVENILE DELINQUENCY PREVENTION EFFORTS

  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I am going to offer an amendment with 
Senator Kennedy. We will be joined by other Senators as well. The 
operative language of this amendment, to give it some context, calls 
upon the States to ``address juvenile delinquency prevention efforts 
and system improvement efforts designed to reduce, without establishing 
or requiring numerical standards or quotas''--we make that explicit; 
nobody is talking about any quotas--``the disproportionate number of 
juvenile members of racial minority groups who come into contact with 
the juvenile justice system.''
  With some charts and with some numbers, I will be able to talk about 
this amendment, as will other Senators. I want, for the record, to make 
it clear that since we are in a debate about whether or not we are 
ready to proceed, I am on the floor with an amendment. I am ready to 
go.
  This particular amendment says that in our past juvenile justice 
legislation, most recently an amendment that was adopted by the Senate 
and the House in 1993, we said to States, including my own State of 
Minnesota: You have a situation where you have kids, young people, 
minorities incarcerated all out of proportion to the percentage of the 
population in your State. So that if you have, let's say, a 7 or 8 or 
10 percent minority population but, in your juvenile justice system or 
correctional facilities, close to 40 or 50 percent of the kids 
incarcerated are kids of color, what we said back in 1993, based upon 
some very good work by some very good people in this field was, States, 
please take a look at your situation. Please collect the data. Please 
look at the why of this and see what kind of strategies and programs 
you can develop and implement to improve upon the situation. That is 
what this is all about.
  For some reason in this bill that is before us, this language has 
been

[[Page S5464]]

dropped. There are some 40 States that are working on this. There are 
some States that are doing a very good job, but as a Senator, I am not 
about to let the Senate turn the clock back. I am not about to let us, 
all of a sudden, say that we no longer are interested in calling upon 
States to deal with this problem of disproportionate minority 
confinement. I do not think we should do so. We cannot pass quotas. We 
never should. We cannot tell States how many kids should be 
incarcerated, for what crimes and all the rest.
  What we can say is when you have disproportionate minority 
confinement, when you have a situation where all too many times kids of 
color are given much stiffer sentences for having committed the same 
offenses as white kids, we want to know what is going on.
  What this legislation does--and it purports to be juvenile justice 
legislation--is take the justice out. It takes the justice out. The 
justice would be to make sure there is no discrimination. The justice 
would be to make sure there is fairness. The justice would be to make 
sure there is justice.
  The reason I mention this is that not only do the kids of color all 
too often find themselves way out of proportion to their numbers in the 
State to be incarcerated but also to wind up in adult facilities. 
Moreover, these corrections facilities, if you want to call them 
corrections facilities, all too often become the gateway to kids then 
being imprisoned in adult life.
  It is astounding, but in 1999, going into a new century, one-third of 
all African American men, I think ages 20 to 26, are either in prison 
or on parole or they are waiting to be sentenced.
  I did not make an argument here on the floor of the Senate that we 
should not hold all citizens, regardless of color of skin, accountable 
for crimes committed. That is not my argument. But my argument is, when 
we have some concern about possible discrimination, then let's at least 
be willing to study the problem.
  I see my colleague coming in. I want to, when the Senator from Utah 
gets settled in, try to explain the situation. I will give my colleague 
time to catch his breath.
  I say to Senator Hatch, I did not want to ask unanimous consent to 
offer an amendment because I did not see anybody on the other side. I 
was saying to the Chair that I am ready to go forward with an 
amendment, this one dealing with disproportionate minority confinement, 
because I know you want to move the bill forward.
  I have been in contact with Senator Kennedy, and if you are ready, I 
am certainly ready to debate it, and we will try to do it within a 
reasonable time limit.
  Mr. HATCH. If the Senator will yield, I believe the majority leader 
is going to propound a unanimous consent request. I am hopeful the 
minority will agree to this request so we can move this forward. If I 
could suggest the absence of a quorum so we can get this done, and as 
soon as that is granted, if that is granted, then we will move on to 
his unanimous consent and then try to work out the time for the 
Senator.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. Let me say to my colleague that I think I will 
continue to, rather than go into a quorum call, speak about the subject 
matter.
  Mr. HATCH. Sure.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. That might help. I want to make it crystal clear that 
I am ready to go forward with this amendment. I am not asking unanimous 
consent that I be able to send this amendment to the desk because I 
guess until we have this agreement, then it most likely would be 
rejected. But I am ready for debate on this amendment.
  Let me just say that when we get into the thick of this debate, I 
want to just bring to the attention of Senators, Democrats and 
Republicans alike, the strong support, the strong passionate support 
for this amendment on the part of the civil rights community in this 
country, broadly defined, on the part of children's organizations, 
broadly defined, and on the part of lawyers and people who have been 
down in the trenches working with kids for years.
  This is an extremely important amendment that speaks to a fundamental 
flaw in this legislation. So, for the record, I am ready to offer this 
amendment. I will wait for the majority leader to come out.
  I ask my colleague from Utah, who is leaving, could I ask unanimous 
consent that when we go to amendments on the juvenile justice bill, 
that this be the first amendment up?
  Mr. HATCH. If the Senator would withhold, right now we are trying to 
work out a unanimous consent agreement. We are trying to work out some 
other matters, but I am certainly going to try to work with the Senator 
on this. It is an important amendment, and we have to face it. So, if 
the Senator will just work with me, I will try to get this so that it 
works.

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