[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 21 (Monday, February 5, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E257]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        REHABILITATED, NONVIOLENT OFFENDERS NEED A SECOND CHANCE

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                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, February 5, 2007

  Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to bring to your attention 
the devastating impact of imprisonment on the lives of rehabilitated 
ex-offenders and to enter into the Record an opinion editorial in the 
New York Times entitled, ``Closing the Revolving Door.''
  Last week I introduced the Second Chance Act which would provide for 
the expungement of criminal records of certain non-violent offenders 
who have paid their debts to society. This ``second chance'' would only 
apply to individuals who have clearly demonstrated their commitment to 
turning themselves into industrious members of our communities.
  It is preposterous that many states have often been forced to choose 
between building new prisons or new schools, because of the federal 
mandatory minimum sentencing laws. Worse still, the country has created 
a growing felon caste, now more than 16 million strong and growing, of 
felons and ex-felons, who are often driven back to prison by policies 
that make it impossible for them to find jobs, housing or education.
  The U.S. Sentencing Commission and the Department of Justice have 
both concluded that mandatory sentencing fails to deter crime. 
Furthermore, mandatory minimums have worsened racial and gender 
disparities and have contributed greatly toward prison overcrowding. 
Mandatory minimum sentencing is costly and unjust. Mandatory sentencing 
does not eliminate sentencing disparities; instead it shifts decision-
making authority from judges to prosecutors, who operate without 
accountability. Mandatory minimums fail to punish high-level dealers. 
Finally, mandatory sentences are responsible for sending record numbers 
of women and people of color to prison.
  I urge your support for H.R. 623, the ``Second Chance for Ex-
Offenders Act of 2007,'' which would provide for the expungement of 
criminal records of certain non-violent offenders who have paid their 
debts to society.

                       [From the New York Times]

                       Closing the Revolving Door

       The United States is paying a heavy price for the mandatory 
     sentencing fad that swept the country 30 years ago. After a 
     tenfold increase in the nation's prison population--and a 
     corrections price tag that exceeds $60 billion a year--the 
     states have often been forced to choose between building new 
     prisons or new schools. Worse still, the country has created 
     a growing felon caste, now more than 16 million strong, of 
     felons and ex-felons, who are often driven back to prison by 
     policies that make it impossible for them to find jobs, 
     housing or education.
       Congress could begin to address this problem by passing the 
     Second Chance Act, which would offer support services for 
     people who are leaving prison. But it would take more than 
     one new law to undo 30 years of damage:
       Researchers have shown that inmates who earn college 
     degrees tend to find jobs and stay out of jail once released. 
     Congress needs to revoke laws that bar inmates from receiving 
     Pell grants and that bar some students with drug convictions 
     from getting other support. Following Washington's lead, the 
     states have destroyed prison education programs that had long 
     since proved their worth.
       People who leave prison without jobs or places to live are 
     unlikely to stay out of jail. Congress should repeal the 
     lifetime ban on providing temporary welfare benefits to 
     people with felony drug convictions. The federal government 
     should strengthen tax credit and bonding programs that 
     encourage employers to hire people with criminal records. 
     States need to stop barring ex-offenders from jobs because of 
     unrelated crimes--or arrests in the distant past that never 
     led to convictions.
       Congress should deny a request from the F.B.I. to begin 
     including juvenile arrests that never led to convictions (and 
     offenses like drunkenness or vagrancy) in the millions of rap 
     sheets sent to employers. That would transform single 
     indiscretions into lifetime stigmas.
       Curbing recidivism will also require doing a lot more to 
     provide help and medication for the one out of every six 
     inmates who suffer mental illness.
       The only real way to reduce the inmate population--and the 
     felon class--is to ensure that imprisonment is a method of 
     last resort. That means abandoning the mandatory sentencing 
     laws that have filled prisons to bursting with nonviolent 
     offenders who are doomed to remain trapped at the very 
     margins of society.

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