[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 155 (Friday, November 5, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14091-S14093]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. GRAHAM (for himself, Mr. Bingaman, and Mrs. Feinstein):
  S. 1874. A bill to improve academic and social outcomes for youth and 
reduce both juvenile crime and the risk that youth will become victims 
of crime by providing productive activities conducted by law 
enforcement personnel during non-school hours; to the Committee on the 
Judiciary.


 introduction of the police athletic league (pal) youth enrichment act 
                                of 1999

 Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, I am extremely pleased to join with 
my distinguished colleagues, Senator Bingaman and Senator Feinstein, in 
introducing the Police Athletic League (PAL) Youth Enrichment Act of 
1999. This legislation is designed to reduce both juvenile crime and 
the risk that youth will become victims of crime. By providing 
productive activities during non-school hours in communities across 
this country, we can provide the healthy environment that our young 
people deserve. Outside the home, there is no safer place in any 
community than a school, a playground, a community center, or a park 
where law enforcement personnel are coordinating the activities.
  The Police Athletic League actually started back in the 1910's. A 
group of

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New York youth tossed a rock through a shopkeeper's window. That rock 
pioneered a new approach to juvenile delinquency prevention. Lieutenant 
Ed Flynn used that incident to create the Police Athletic League--an 
organization that makes police officers into role models and friends 
rather than enemies. PAL brings cops and kids together in activities 
where mutual trust and respect can be built. It is a statement to young 
people, particularly in less advantaged neighborhoods, that the 
community cares about them. It extends a hand of friendship to 
children--boys, girls, young men and women--who do not have many 
opportunities.
  Mr. President, there is clearly a direct link between crime 
prevention and PAL participation. Young people who are idle have the 
potential to be drawn into crime. In Baltimore, the PAL centers have 
cut juvenile crime by 30 percent and decreased juvenile victimization 
by 40 percent. In El Centro, California, PAL has reduced juvenile crime 
and gang activity in the HUD Housing Development by 64 percent.
  PAL, staffed by police officers, has numerous success stories of 
helping to shape the lives of individuals. In my own state of Florida, 
former PAL kid Ed Tobin is now a successful attorney. Steve Colin is a 
well known radio station personality in Miami Beach. In Jacksonville, 
23 Sheriff's Officers were PAL kids. Derrick Alexander of the Cleveland 
Browns and Shawn Jefferson of the New England Patriots were both PAL 
kids.
  Our legislation seeks to expand services of current chapters and 
provide seed money for 50 new chapters per year for the next 5 years 
(2000-2004). New chapters will offer programs providing a combination 
of mentoring assistance; academic assistance; recreational and athletic 
activities; technology training; and drug, alcohol, and gang prevention 
activities. This list is by no means exhaustive. PAL centers also offer 
health and nutrition counseling; cultural and social programs; conflict 
resolution training, anger management, and peer pressure training; job 
skill preparation activities; and Youth PAL conferences or Youth 
Forums.
  PAL currently has 320 chapters serving over 3,000 communities with a 
network of 1,700 facilities. Today, they mentor and serve more than one 
and half million young people, ages 6 to 18, throughout the United 
States, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. In my home state, the 
Miami-Dade PAL serves over 13,000 youth annually, and Jacksonville 
serves over 12,000. We know, however, that many areas are still 
undeserved by PAL chapters.
  Law enforcement, community organizations, and local governments 
strongly support this bill. Mr. President, this investment in our youth 
will pay for itself many times over in reduced crime and law 
enforcement costs. I urge all my colleagues to support the passage of 
this much needed legislation. Together with the Police Athletic League, 
we can fill playgrounds instead of prisons.
 Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I rise today to join with Senator 
Graham in introducing the ``Police Athletic League Youth Enrichment Act 
of 1999.''
  The Police Athletic League (PAL) is a national organization that has 
been teaming up law enforcement with our nation's youth for the past 55 
years. New Mexico is fortunate to have a statewide PAL program. The New 
Mexico PAL provides New Mexico's youth with a variety of after-school 
and summer activities. Last year, the New Mexico PAL provided hundreds 
of New Mexico kids with alternatives to getting into trouble. For these 
reasons, I am very proud to introduce the PAL Youth Enrichment Act with 
Senator Graham.
  In New Mexico, the PAL chapter has ten sites around the state: Santa 
Fe, Albuquerque, Gallup, Tohatchi, Bloomfield, Roswell, Dona Ana 
County, Clovis, Lordsburg and the Pueblo of Cochiti. The goal of the 
New Mexico PAL is to provide recreational, educational and cultural 
activities for at-risk youth ages five to eighteen with the intent of 
reducing negative behaviors and promoting healthy behavioral patterns. 
PAL aims to build self-esteem and resiliency in youth and provide 
positive alternatives to alcohol, drug use, delinquent behavior and 
violence. The New Mexico PAL sponsors sporting leagues throughout the 
year, participates in Sports Days during the summer, sponsors a one-
week summer camp and offers ongoing mentoring opportunities for youth.
  The PAL volunteers not only play sports with the youth, but they 
fight for the youth. In Albuquerque, the PAL chapter aided in 
preserving the use of a baseball field for the youth sporting leagues.
  Last summer the New Mexico PAL held several Youth Sports Days that 
attracted between 40 and 150 kids in each community. In August, I 
attended the Youth Sports Day in Santa Fe. The daylong event provided 
the younger kinds in the community with a variety of sporting events, 
prizes and lunch. The kids and parents interacted with the law 
enforcement officers in a setting that allowed them to see the officers 
as community members, mentors and leaders.
  The New Mexico PAL also sponsors a week long summer camp, Camp 
Courage, each year at the Cochiti Lake. It is a reward camp for kids 
that have said ``no'' to antisocial behavior. More than one hundred 
kids participate in this program annually. Because a camp requires a 
lower adult child ratio, the local FBI agents, DEA agents and the 
National Guard joined with the local police and sheriffs in organizing 
a week of intense sporting activities. They also offered themselves as 
mentors and reachers for the youth. The commitment of these law 
enforcement officers to the youth of New Mexico is truly admirable.
  After seeing what the New Mexico PAL has accomplished, I have come to 
be a great supporter of PAL. I now want other communities around the 
nation to be able to benefit from the same programs and services and 
for more New Mexico communities to be able to start PAL programs. As I 
see it, a police officer's duty is primarily to protect a community. I 
look at PAL as law enforcement's way of helping protect the health of 
our kids--both the physical well being and the mental well being.
  The PAL Youth Enrichment Act will enable existing PAL to expand their 
services and provide seed money for new PAL in distressed communities, 
including many Native American communities. The goal is to provide seed 
money for fifty new chapters each year for the next five years. By 
providing $16 million annually for new and existing PAL, youth around 
the country will benefit from a combination of academic assistance; 
mentoring assistance; recreational and athletic activities; technology 
training; drug, alcohol, and gang prevention activities; health and 
nutrition counseling; cultural and social programs, conflict resolution 
training; anger management; peer pressure training; and job skill 
preparation classes.
  Although PAL chapters consist of local law enforcement, they do not 
receive direct funding from the law enforcement agencies, and instead 
rely on the efforts of volunteers and fund-raising proceeds. Because of 
this funding situation, in 1977 I urged Congress to appropriate funds 
for the New Mexico PAL. In 1998 I succeeded in getting $1 million 
appropriated through the Commerce-Justice-State Appropriations bill for 
the New Mexico PAL program to expand the PAL services to communities 
around the State and to greatly enhance the current programs it 
offered. This money has enabled the New Mexico PAL to carry out its 
summer programs, its Camp Courage, and many other new activities. It 
also has allowed them to expand the program to tribal communities in 
northwest New Mexico, with the cooperation of the tribal police in 
those areas. The PAL Youth Enrichment Act will provide the funding 
needed to continue programs like the New Mexico PAL and will give other 
states the incentive to start up PAL programs in distressed 
communities.
  Kids need healthy alternatives to crime and assistance in dealing 
with their anger. Athletics and recreational activities like dancing 
and drama greatly improves one's well being--both physically and 
mentally--and give teens an outlet for their energy and anger. PAL's 
sports and recreational activities also help kids learn the importance 
of teamwork and help boost their self-esteem when they accomplish more 
than they thought possible.

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  Many folks do not realize it but the PALs have produced some great 
athletes over the years. New Mexico is proud of its native son, Danny 
Romero Jr., a former two-time world boxing champion and an alumnus of 
the New Mexico PAL program. According to Danny's father, the PAL 
philosophy taught his son life skills that he could no have learned any 
where else and kept him out of trouble.
  Mr. President, I encourage the Senate to take up and pass this 
worthwhile legislation that expands a program with proven positive 
results. Just ask the 1.5 million children in more than 3,000 
communities that the PAL program over the past 55 years has served. The 
PAL programs will change our youth's attitude toward police, will 
provide a variety of alternatives to criminal behavior and will 
positively influence a child's mental and physical well-being. I hope 
that my Senate colleagues will join me in supporting this important 
legislation
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