[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 102 (Wednesday, July 21, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H6540]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                INDIVIDUALS SHOULD HAVE A SECOND CHANCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor this evening 
because earlier today I failed to pass an amendment in a Committee on 
Education and the Workforce markup. My amendment was a very simple 
amendment, very modest amendment. It was an amendment that would have 
allowed States to move utilization of their leadership funds for 
vocational education from 1 percent to 3 percent.
  Now, I think my amendment failed not because it lacked merit. I do 
not think it failed because it was too ambitious, but I think it failed 
basically because of a lack of understanding and sensitivity to what I 
think is emerging as one of the biggest problems facing urban America 
today, and that is, the problem of individuals coming home from prison 
with no skill, little education, no training and virtually no ability 
to get a job, which sends them right back to the penitentiaries from 
which they have come.
  We have become, Mr. Speaker, the most incarcerated Nation on the face 
of the Earth, the United States of America. It is hard to believe, but 
we have more people in prison per capita than any other country on the 
face of the Earth. Right now, as I speak, there are more than 2 million 
people in this country who are incarcerated, in jails and prisons. More 
than 640,000 of them come home each and every year.
  Now, I will not even bother to go into why there are so many people 
in prison: mandatory minimums, antiquated sentencing laws, get tough on 
drugs, punishment that does not fit the crime; of course, lack of 
prevention, lack of education, poverty; all of the things that 
characterize individuals who are in prison and, of course, in many 
instances, race and ethnic backgrounds.
  The realities are, if we do not do something to stem the tide, then 
this problem keeps recurring over and over and over again.
  Last year, I introduced a bill, the Public Safety Ex-Offender Self-
Sufficiency Act of 2003, along with the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. 
Souder). That bill calls for the building of 100,000 units of SRO-type 
housing for ex-offenders, people as they come out of prison because all 
of the studies suggest that one of the biggest problems that people 
have when they return home from prison is having a stable environment 
in which to live.
  About 3 weeks ago, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Portman) and I and 
the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Jones) and the gentleman from Indiana 
(Mr. Souder) introduced the Second Chance Ex-Offender Act which is, in 
reality, a scaled-down version of our first bill. What we are really 
trying to do is to assist people to reenter back into normal life. It 
has nothing to do with getting soft on crime or being soft on crime, 
but it has everything to do with promoting public safety, with reducing 
recidivism, with improving the quality of life, not only for those 
individuals who return but for all of those with whom they come into 
contact.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I hope that as we continue to move progressively in 
our country that we would take a different look at how we treat 
punishment and how individuals who have gone afoul of the law should 
have and must have a second chance.

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