[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 162 (Monday, November 2, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H7379-H7384]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 6, 2015, the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Kelly) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
General Leave
Ms. KELLY of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their
remarks.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, it is my honor and privilege to lead tonight's
Congressional Black Caucus Special Order hour, where we will have the
opportunity to speak directly to the American people.
But before we get to business, I do want to take a second, even
though it feels like an eternity, to congratulate my dear friend and
colleague, our CBC chairman for the 112th Congress, the Honorable
Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City, for his hometown Kansas City Royals
victory in last night's World Series game.
I am an Illinoisan by way of New York. So I had a little stake in
this one. But, again, my congratulations to the city of Kansas City and
to Congressman Cleaver.
Mr. Speaker, I truly do believe that it is an honor and a privilege
to host the Congressional Black Caucus Special Order hour. So I speak
to you this evening very much concerned and severely disappointed that
we are even having tonight's topic under such circumstances.
Tonight we are here to address saving our communities, where our
focus for this hour will be on key legislative priorities that this
Congress, this year's Congressional Black Caucus, and our Nation must
confront in order to help make this union more perfect for our next
generation.
Mr. Speaker, this year there have been a lot of tragic episodes that
may make one shake their head and ask what is going on.
We have covered a number of these topics in the course of this year,
whether it be the issue of criminal justice reform, gun violence,
economic investment as a antidote to violence, community policing, or
the value of Black lives in America.
Mr. Speaker, the issues that I will cover this evening aren't Black
Caucus issues. I know that most in this Congress and most across this
great country would acknowledge that they are American issues.
Falling short as a Nation on these fronts only divides us and only
serves as a barrier to our boundless possibilities as an American
people.
Over the past few weeks, we heard a lot about the need to clean out
the barn before the baton was passed from Speaker to Speaker. I think
we made some progress in clearing out the barn last week as we passed a
bipartisan budget agreement, which President Obama signed into law
earlier today.
But, Mr. Speaker, as the baton has been passed from Speaker Boehner
to Speaker Ryan, we must keep in mind that there is still much that
needs to be cleaned out of the barn when it comes to criminal justice
reform, creating opportunity in vulnerable communities, addressing
inequities in the justice system, valuing all lives, regardless of
race, religion or sexual orientation, making sure that good cops can do
their job in keeping communities safe, and making sure that bad cops
don't get to be the Nation's norm.
We must have a culture where bad cops don't have a safe haven, where
they can't get away with violations of the public trust in communities
they were sworn to protect, and where they aren't in a position to
spoil the whole bunch of good cops we have protecting American
communities.
Mr. Speaker, tonight we will have a long and overdue conversation
about saving our communities.
At this time, I yield to the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus,
my colleague from North Carolina, Representative G.K. Butterfield.
Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Let me first thank you, Congresswoman Robin Kelly,
for yielding time to me tonight. Thank you for your willingness to stay
on the floor tonight, even though this suspension bill was placed in
front of us tonight. We certainly understand that has that happen from
time to time. But thank you so very much for staying on the floor to
manage the time this evening.
I also want to thank you, Ms. Kelly, for your extraordinary
leadership. Thank you for what you do for the Congressional Black
Caucus. Thank you for what you do for your constituents in Illinois.
Most importantly, thank you for what you do for our country. It is
certainly appreciated.
I will certainly join you, Ms. Kelly, in congratulating the Kansas
City Royals on their well-deserved victory. I did not watch the entire
World Series, but I watched enough of it to know that this team was
much deserving of this victory. And so congratulations not only to Mr.
Cleaver, who is so proud of Kansas City and talks about his hometown
all of the time, but congratulations to all of those fans of that great
team.
Tonight we are talking about the urgent need to save our communities.
What an appropriate topic, Ms. Kelly, because communities all across
the country are in crisis.
I travel quite a bit across the country and visit many different
communities not only in my State, but in many other States. I can tell
you firsthand that communities all across our country are facing
crises. They are facing crises in so many different respects.
They are facing the whole issue of pervasive poverty. Poverty in
America is real. We have more than 400 counties in the United States of
America that have poverty rates that exceed 20 percent, and all of
these have had poverty rates for more than 30 years greater than 20
percent. So poverty is a critical issue in our country, and communities
are feeling the effect of it in a significant way.
Joblessness. Joblessness. I continue to say that the unemployment
rate is
[[Page H7380]]
unacceptably high. Even though we have made a great improvement in the
unemployment rate since the recession, it is still too high. For
African American workers, it is hovering somewhere around 10 percent.
That is unacceptable.
We all talk from time to time and we see it all over the news today
about police misconduct. Police misconduct is continuing to be a
pervasive problem in so many communities.
I'm sure tonight Mr. Bobby Scott from Virginia, who is very
passionate about the whole issue of criminal justice reform, is going
to talk about mass incarceration in the United States of America.
Certainly that is a real problem, and there are many Members in this
body who are working every day to try to craft together legislation to
try to address the whole question of mass incarceration.
Also, we have crumbling schools and infrastructure and highways and
tunnels and ports. Our whole infrastructure in this country needs to be
addressed. Hopefully, we will be able to pass a transportation bill
before the end of the year.
Hopefully, my friends on the other side of the aisle will not try to
load up the transportation bill with any Ex-Im Bank riders that will be
a poison pill that would slow down or even defeat the transportation
bill.
{time} 2000
So the point is, Ms. Kelly, that we do have an urgent need to save
our communities. We need all hands on deck as we take on this
challenge.
We consistently see, Ms. Kelly, an over-criminalization of African
Americans, specifically our youth. We see, for example, minor
infractions that occur in the context of a classroom--yes, we have seen
that on television over the last few days--a minor infraction in a
classroom that escalates into an arrestable offense.
Students, particularly those who are African American and Hispanic,
are too frequently funneled into the justice system as a result of
overly punitive school discipline policies and poorly defined roles for
law enforcement in educational settings.
Unfortunately, the school-to-prison pipeline is still a reality. When
I first came to Congress 11 years ago, we were talking about the
school-to-prison pipeline, and we continue to talk about it today. It
is a reality. So we must work together to remedy this problem.
We, as members of the Congressional Black Caucus, do not at all
endorse what some people over the last few days have started to call
the ``Ferguson Effect.'' Let me just elaborate on that for a moment.
We have heard some high-ranking officials in our country refer to the
``Ferguson Effect.'' They are suggesting in some way that an uptick in
crime can be attributable to police inaction because of their fears of
the ``Ferguson Effect.''
That is so erroneous. That is so disingenuous. I wish we would
concentrate on the problem and not try to get sidetracked on the so-
called ``Ferguson Effect.''
The deaths of so many unarmed Black men like Michael Brown, Eric
Garner, and Freddie Gray are all a result of a number of issues,
including the overcriminalization of minorities and a lack of effective
community policing practices.
Let us seize this opportunity that we have before us to gain
significant ground on several legislative areas which are not only CBC
priorities, but are also in the strategic interests of our Nation.
Criminal justice reform is one such area.
Mr. Speaker and Ms. Kelly, any criminal justice reform, any
legislation that we consider, must guarantee a substantial reduction in
the prison population for Federal prisoners. We are, as a country, 5
percent of the world's population; yet, we incarcerate 25 percent of
those who are incarcerated in the world. There is something is wrong
with that, Mr. Speaker.
We must make sure that our laws and our criminal laws in this country
are fair and that they are not disproportionate and overburdensome in
some areas.
We have Members of this body on both sides of the aisle who
acknowledge the inadequacies in our criminal justice system and see
reform as a key priority. The political will--the political will--for
criminal justice reform is here today.
The President was in Newark, New Jersey, today talking about criminal
justice reform. Some of my Republican colleagues are talking about it,
and my Democratic colleagues are talking about it.
The leadership on both sides of the aisle have had meaningful
conversations on this issue. We believe that a bipartisan legislative
accomplishment can be achieved in this session.
I know that there are several bills that are pending, and I hope Mr.
Scott will talk extensively about it when he makes his remarks in just
a moment.
But criminal justice reform can take place in the 114th Congress, and
I believe we can reach a bipartisan compromise that can get this bill
to the President's desk by the end of this term.
Thank you, Ms. Kelly, for yielding time.
Ms. KELLY of Illinois. Thank you, my colleague from North Carolina,
for your outstanding remarks on this topic of saving our community. I
really, really appreciate it, and so do the American people.
At this time, I would like to introduce my other colleague,
Representative Bobby Scott from the great State of Virginia.
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. I thank the gentlewoman for organizing this
Special Order so that we can talk about many aspects of the criminal
justice system.
You have asked us to talk about the militarization of communities,
also what we can do to improve policing and the problem of mass
incarceration. On the term of militarizing the communities, there was
an amendment offered a few months ago that would have prevented the
Department of Defense from giving local police departments certain
military equipment.
I think it is important to read what was actually in the legislation
because some thought that handguns and ammunition was what we were
talking about. Actually, the amendment goes into great length
specifically about what would be prohibited if that amendment passed to
help reduce the militarization of our communities.
The Department of Defense has a program where they will give surplus
equipment to local communities, and the limitation was that none of
these transfers could include aircraft, including drones; armored
vehicles; grenade launchers; silencers; toxicological agents, including
chemical agents and biological agents; launch vehicles; guided
missiles; ballistic missiles; rockets; torpedoes; bombs; mines; or
nuclear weapons.
Those are the only things that would be barred if this amendment had
passed, not handguns and ammunition or other things that local police
departments could actually use. But what local police department needs
nuclear weapons or torpedoes?
We are not talking about the large, sophisticated police forces. This
is the kind of stuff that was being given to police departments that
you might think of when you think of Andy Griffith and Barney Fife.
What do they need with a tank?
In one of the local incidents when they had a tank come out, it was
pointed out that the people trying to drive the tank hadn't been
trained on the tank. Can you just imagine hearing from inside, ``Where
are the brakes? Where are the brakes?''
If you need a military response, the appropriate thing to do would be
to call in the National Guard. Then you have the military performing
the military functions. I think there is a lot that we can do to
restrict this kind of equipment going to our local police departments.
A lot has been said about policing. We can discuss the problem of
policing. We all know that the vast, overwhelming majority of police
officers risk their lives on our behalf and do an excellent job.
But whenever you get to describe what the problem is, we know what
the solution is going to be, and that is to make sure that there is a
consensus growing that we need body cameras so we can know exactly what
happened and police training so that police can be properly trained on
things like how to avoid profiling, how to avoid discrimination, and
treating one group different from the other. Implicit bias is what it
is called. There is a lot you
[[Page H7381]]
can do in training, and we need to make sure we have funding for that
training.
But in terms of mass incarceration, that is where we really need a
lot of work. As the chairman mentioned, we have 5 percent of the
world's population and 25 percent of the world's prisoners. In most
countries, for every 100,000 population, they lock up 50 to 200 people
per 100,000. The United States locks up over 700 per 100,000. We are
well into the first place. There is nobody close.
That number is particularly egregious because there have been recent
studies that have suggested that anything over 500 per 100,000 is
actually counterproductive.
You have got so many people in jail. You have so many families being
raised with their parents in prison. Young people are being raised
without their parents. You have so many people with felony records
having trouble finding jobs.
You are wasting so much money that anything over about 500 per
100,000 is counterproductive. We are at 700 and some per 100,000. The
African American incarceration rate is in the thousands. That is just
wasted money.
That is what Texas found when they were looking a few years ago at an
appropriations request of $2 billion needed to keep up with all the
slogans and sound bites that they had codified in terms of keeping up
with the mass incarceration in Texas, $2 billion in construction.
And somebody said, ``Well, if you actually make a better choice, if
you invested some of that money in prevention, early intervention, and
rehabilitation, you might not have to spend all $2 billion.''
That is what they did. They intelligently invested in evidence-based
programs, programs studied and known to reduce crime, not just sound
like they reduce crime, but actually known to reduce crime, evidence-
based policies of prevention, early intervention, and rehabilitation,
and they found that they didn't need to build any new prisons.
In fact, they were able to close some of the prisons that they had.
Over 30 States have figured out that they can reduce crime and save
money by reducing mass incarceration. On the other hand, Mr. Speaker,
there are people that think slogans and sound bites are good, and that
is how we got in the mess we are in now.
The chairman mentioned the school-to-prison pipeline. I like to refer
to it as the Children's Defense Fund does, as the cradle-to-prison
pipeline, because that suggests that there are things all the way along
the line that we are not doing that help construct this pipeline that
ends up with--at present estimates, one out of three African American
boys born today will end up in prison.
We can do better than that if we make the appropriate investments all
the way through from early childhood education to after-school
programs, a continuum of services, to make sure that they create the
cradle-to-college-and-career pipeline and not the cradle-to-prison
pipeline. That includes investments that have been studied, evidence
based, and we know they work.
There is a lot you can do in terms of criminal justice reform, but if
you do it right, it has to be comprehensive. That means you start with
prevention and early intervention, make sure you are making those
investments so fewer young people are getting in trouble. Then you have
to do police training. We know that good police training can improve
policing and, also, reduce crime. Body cameras can eliminate a lot of
problems.
Last year we passed the Death in Custody Reporting Act, which
requires reporting from local police of anybody that dies in their
custody in prison, in jail, or in the process of arrest, so we know
what is going on around the country. As you have the debate, you can
debate from a point of view of facts, not just in allegations when
people don't know exactly what the facts are.
We can make sure that the police training is there. You can have
diversion to make sure that people who are arrested might not have to
spend--the only people you need pretrial in jail are those that need to
be in jail. You don't want to have unnecessary people serving time and
losing their jobs in the process.
You need a continuum of services, drug courts which can address the
underlying problem rather than just convict them, lock them up, they
come back, same thing, come back, back and forth.
If you deal with the underlying problem in a drug court, you can have
a situation where they are diverted from prison and, also, much less
likely to commit a crime in the future.
One of the major factors in over-incarceration are the mandatory
minimums. We need to have significant reductions in mandatory minimum
sentencing to make sure they only apply to a small portion of real,
legitimate kingpins, not to girlfriends and people on the periphery
that may have gotten caught up in a conspiracy.
Once you get into prison, make sure that it is for rehabilitation,
not for just warehousing, so you are much less likely to commit a crime
when you come out. You have to fund the second chance programs.
All of this is part of the SAFE Justice Act, which has the added
benefit that, because of the significant reductions in mandatory
minimums, there will be savings. The Department of Justice is able to
redirect the savings into the prevention, early intervention programs,
the drug courts, the body cameras and everything else. So everything in
the program is paid for by reducing incarceration.
This legislation has the support of a lot of different organizations,
liberal and conservative, because everybody knows that, if it is
enacted, we will reduce crime and save money.
So we know what to do. It is just a matter of making sure we have the
political will to do the right thing, to deal with mass incarceration
by making the right choice, not the slogans and sound bites, but the
evidence-based approach that will actually reduce crime and save money.
We can do it. There is legislation pending. There are a lot of
different bills, but we need to make sure that the comprehensive
approach is reflected in whatever comes to the floor.
So I want to thank the gentlewoman from Illinois for bringing us
together so we can discuss the militarization of our communities, the
solutions for policing, which would include training and body cameras
and how we can effectively reduce mass incarceration. We know what to
do, and the solutions save more money than they cost.
So thank you very much for the opportunity to present that.
Ms. KELLY of Illinois. Thank you so much for your important remarks.
I know this topic is one that you have been researching and studying,
trying to come up with solutions for a long time.
One thing that is a little disconcerting is you say that the SAFE
Justice Act is widely supported, but it still doesn't move.
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Well, it doesn't matter which bill moves. The
question is whatever moves ought to have the elements of prevention and
early intervention, ought to have diversion, and if you only deal with
sentencing in the Federal system, you are not dealing with mass
incarceration in the United States.
The Federal system only has 10 percent of the prisoners. So if you
just eliminated the Federal system, you are only talking about 10
percent reduction in incarceration. You have to do something about mass
incarceration at the State level.
{time} 2015
So when you just talk about sentencing reform, if you reduce a
mandatory minimum for 25 to 15 years, the first 15 years, that has no
effect, because they will serve the first 15 years, then gradually you
will have an effect. If you want an effect, you need to have prevention
programs so fewer people are coming into prison, diversion programs so
those who are arrested can be diverted from prison, dealt with
effectively in drug court so they are much less likely to commit a
crime again so that you can reduce crime and save money.
You have to make sure you have meaningful mandatory minimum reforms
because that is one of the major drivers of the overincarceration. When
people are in prison, you have to make sure you have the funding for
the programs to make sure they don't come back. And once in the
community, the
[[Page H7382]]
second chance programs that have been very effective need to be funded.
We know what to do; it is just a matter of getting it done. It
doesn't matter whose bill passes; it is just whatever passes ought to
have those elements.
Ms. KELLY of Illinois. Is there any particular State that you think
does a better job that we can hold up as a role model?
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. There are 30 States that have reduced crime
and saved money. Texas was one of the first because they were looking
at a $2 billion appropriation request to keep up with the slogans and
sound bites that they had enacted in mass incarceration. At the rate
they were going, they needed $2 billion in prison construction.
They decided instead to invest it in prevention programs so fewer
kids were getting in trouble; early intervention programs so that once
people got in a little trouble, they wouldn't get in worse trouble; and
rehabilitation in prisons so that as people got out, they were less
likely to come back. They found that they not only didn't have to spend
any of the $2 billion building prisons, they were able to close some of
the prisons they had.
Texas is a red State, and they called their initiative ``Right on
Crime.'' Using the word ``right'' in both words is correct, and from
the political right. So you had conservatives investing their money
appropriately, reducing crime, and saving money.
Ms. KELLY of Illinois. That is fantastic.
I know in my district, we have held some roundtables, and some of my
employers, manufacturers, they shared that they did hire people who
were in prison and were some of their best employees because they are
so grateful that someone gave them a chance. We really need to promote
that and highlight those things.
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. The second chance idea is that people who get
out of prison ought to be supported. The little money you spend on
support pales in consideration to what usually happens. They get out,
they can't find a job, they can't do anything, and they are right back
into prison at $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 a year. If you spend a little
bit of money supporting them, they might not come back.
One of the elements the President talked about today is the ``ban the
box.'' When you fill out an application, there is a little box, ``Have
you ever been convicted of a felony?'' If you check the box, that is
the end of the interview.
What the ban the box is suggesting is don't talk about the criminal
record at first. Go through the process so you can present your
credentials. Then, at the end of the process, they can discuss criminal
record, but not at the beginning.
You will find that many people, the conviction is so far past.
Studies have shown that after a few years, if you have got a clean
record, the chance of you committing a crime isn't any higher than the
general population. So if it is a 15-year-old nonviolent offense, well,
maybe it is not relevant; and maybe your credentials are so much better
than everybody else's that you are the right person for the job, but
you never would have had the opportunity to present your credentials if
you had to check the box.
So all around the country, cities, States, and businesses are
eliminating that box to check, talking to people and seeing if they are
actually qualified for the job, and those that are qualified can get
the job. Obviously, some violations, if you have got an embezzlement
charge and you are trying to get a job in a bank, or child molestation
at a daycare center, you know, but a lot of them, if it is a 20-year-
old marijuana possession charge or something like that, compared to
your credentials, compared to everybody else head and shoulders, well,
people can overlook a 20-year-old conviction. You never would have
gotten to that point if you had to check the box. That is why the ban
the box campaign is so important.
Ms. KELLY of Illinois. That is a good idea we have now in Illinois.
Thank you, Representative. I really appreciate you taking the time
and sharing your vast knowledge about this topic.
Mr. Speaker, many of the families that we represent believe that the
only and right way to save our communities and secure our better future
is to enact laws that actually understand the needs of American
families, regardless of circumstance, and invest in their future.
This Congress must have a frank conversation about what those
investments are and vote for policies that will truly save our
communities. And this conversation has to be a bipartisan conversation,
not just a Congressional Black Caucus or Democratic conversation.
Mr. Speaker, I am reminded that today our colleague, the Honorable
Donald Payne, Jr., of New Jersey could not be here because he was asked
to be with the President. President Obama visited Congressman Payne's
district to discuss criminal justice reform, as you heard a little bit
about already.
As many of you know, earlier today, President Obama spoke of his
intent to make significant reforms in the criminal justice space; and
in keeping with the message of ``saving our communities,'' the reforms
the President is championing are necessary. I thank the President for
his efforts.
I want to take just a moment to say that I appreciate the fact that
over on the other side of the Hill, a bipartisan coalition of Senators,
led by my Congressional Black Caucus colleague, Senator Cory Booker, as
well as my home State Senator, the Honorable Dick Durbin, and men
willing to cross the aisle, like Senator Mike Lee of Utah, were able to
come together to introduce comprehensive legislation aimed at
recalibrating prison sentences for certain drug offenders, targeting
violent criminals, and granting judges greater discretion at sentencing
for low-level drug crimes. Their sentencing reform legislation helps to
curve recidivism by helping prisoners successfully reenter society.
These are just small components of an overall strategy to help save
communities, but they are critical ones nonetheless.
Here are the facts. More than half a million people leave U.S.
prisons each year with jobs, housing, and mental health services
scarce. Many are soon to be back behind bars.
Like the President said, many of us in the Congressional Black Caucus
are calling on community stakeholders to break the cycle of
incarceration by helping former inmates successfully reenter society.
So tonight's Special Order hour is an opportunity that comes on the
heels of the President's New Jersey visit, a visit where he toured a
drug treatment center called the Integrity House, and recognized its
work in helping former inmates secure housing, jobs, and skills needed
to transition to life outside of prison. I have a place like that in
Illinois called the Safer Foundation that does much of the same work.
As the President noted, everyone has a role to play in criminal
justice reform and reintegrating those who have served time in prison
back into society. From businesses that are hiring ex-offenders to
philanthropies that are supporting education and training programs, we
have to get to work getting ex-offenders back on their feet so they can
help build up their communities.
Mr. Speaker, this Congress has to have the astuteness and manpower in
its ranks to recognize that we must do more, that it will take a
village, and it takes real leadership to improve the plight of
America's communities. This means we need jobs legislation that offers
opportunity. This means we need safe streets free of violence. This
means we need community policing that brings us peace of mind and
comfort.
I feel compelled in this conversation about communities to say that,
as a representative of the Chicagoland area and as a co-chair of the
House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, Congress must get over its
fear of talking about violence in America. We have to do more than hold
moments of silence when tragedies occur. We have to stop being silent
and start acting. We don't have to be enemies on this subject.
The issues of gun violence and police violence in our communities are
real. It is how we respond to the problems that exist in these areas
that will show our strength as a country. Right now, the tragic
occurrences that exist with respect to these issues only serve as
barriers to our growth as a nation.
[[Page H7383]]
When I talk about gun violence, I always start out by reminding folks
of a few things.
First, it is important to realize that gun violence isn't just an
urban problem; it is an American problem. In the last 50 years, more
than 1 million people have been killed by guns in America.
Since 1968, more Americans have died from gunfire than died in all
the wars of this country's history.
A young Black man is nearly 5 times more likely to be killed by a gun
than a young White man, and 13 times more than an Asian American man.
If a Black person is killed by a gun, it is judged a homicide 82
percent of the time.
And keep in mind, from metal detectors in buildings to shooting
safety drills at schools and movie theaters, gun violence has affected
all of our communities, not only in terms of how we live, but whether
we live at all.
And the irony is that, even with all this death and tragedy, this
Congress can't even put a background check bill on the House floor,
even with an NRA membership that is in 80 percent agreement that we
need expanded background checks. Last Congress, even with about 190
cosponsors, the bill never came to the floor.
When I talk about saving our communities and discussing the actions
of the police, I often remind people of this: the police are not our
enemy. I won't ever say that because that simply is not the case.
To make our communities safer, we need the support of families,
leaders, and our local law enforcement. I come from a family of law
enforcement officers and know that our police ranks are filled with
brave, well-intentioned, civic-minded heroes. Sadly, too many in the
Black community don't have the same family experience that I have had
with law enforcement and fear the police. I have a 31-year-old son, and
even though the same police are in his family, he hasn't had the same
experiences.
And, unfortunately, there are still too many police officers who
harbor a level of fear when it comes to dealing with the Black
community.
Mr. Speaker, we have discussed the aftermath of a few high-profile
police events. I will repeat what I often say: we must hold our law
enforcement officials to the highest professional standards and provide
them with the training they need to effectively police diverse
communities. This training must address the biases and stereotypes that
influence decisions in the field and that create obstacles to mutual
understanding. In working to achieve that understanding, we can strive
toward a justice system that treats all Americans fairly and values all
American lives equally.
Before I end, I just want to give my colleague the opportunity to
share a few more words.
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the
gentlewoman from Illinois for all of her strong work in criminal
justice. She has been fighting since she first got here. That is
certainly appreciated and has made quite a difference.
As you have indicated, this is a moment when adversarial groups and
Members of Congress, liberal and conservative, have come to a consensus
that we need to reform the criminal justice system. The Safe Justice
Act that I mentioned is led by Jim Sensenbrenner from Wisconsin, a
Republican, and has Republican and Democratic support. There are bills
in the House and the Senate with bipartisan support. If we are going to
have this moment where everyone is in agreement, we need to make sure
that we do everything we possibly can.
I thank you for organizing this Special Order so that we can make
criminal justice reform a reality.
Ms. KELLY of Illinois. Thank you.
I thank my colleagues for lending their voices for this important
conversation about saving our communities, and I will be submitting
some other work from other colleagues not here tonight.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Ms. FUDGE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with my colleagues from the
Congressional Black Caucus because last week our nation was reminded,
yet again, Black lives have no value. But this time, the reminder was
different.
It did not come from law enforcement in response to a shooting,
traffic stop, or 911 call. Nor did it come from inside a jail cell or a
court room. This time, the reminder came from the use of excessive
force in a place where most of us would expect it never to happen: our
schools.
Schools should be safe havens for our nation's children.
Unfortunately, actions of Spring Valley school resource officer, Ben
Fields, caught on video have proven that they are not. Instead of
preparing young minds across the country to tackle our nation's most
complex issues, some of our schools are fostering fear and mistrust.
And, this is what my young constituents have told me. On October 16,
I held a listening session with more than 400 high school students from
Northeast Ohio.
I was surprised to hear that nearly all of them felt there was no one
they could talk to--in their schools or communities--if they felt
unsafe. Today, I am not so shocked. With incidents like the one
captured in the Spring Valley video, who could blame them?
What messages are acts like these sending our youth? Are they to
think this behavior is acceptable and that they matter less, if at all?
The over criminalization of African-American youth and young adults
is already a growing issue in our communities. The number of African-
American men in jail continues to rise. African-American and Latino
boys and men tend to receive harsher sentences than their peers of
other races.
Further, the school-to-prison pipeline is as strong as ever, with our
African-American students suspended at three times the rate of their
White peers. In this case, criminal charges were even filed against the
young Spring Valley female student after she was subjected to egregious
force by a ``resource officer.''
As a nation, we must stop this vicious cycle. It is time to change
the narrative and save our communities for generations to come.
I call on my colleagues in Congress to work together to pass policies
that tell our children their lives have value. We must pass criminal
justice reform and support policies that create a safe, nurturing
environment in our schools. The future of our communities depends on
it.
Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, as many of you know, the promotion of best
practices and oversight of state and local law enforcement have been
legislative priorities during my tenure as a Judiciary Committee
member. My Pattern And Practice statute, passed as part of the 1994
crime bill, has served at the dominant tool used by the Department of
Justice to address the myriad of policing controversies dating back the
LAPD, New Orleans and most recently Seattle, Cleveland and Ferguson,
Missouri police departments.
Over the past two decades, tensions between police and communities of
color have grown as allegations of bias-based policing by law
enforcement agents, sometimes supported by data collection efforts and
video evidence, have increased in number and frequency.
Recent events in the wake of Ferguson, Missouri demonstrate that
racial profiling and bias-based policing remain divisive issues in
communities across the nation that strikes at the very foundation of
our democracy.
The deaths of Walter L. Scott--arising from a traffic stop--Michael
Brown, Eric Garner, and Antonio Zambrano-Montes--all at the hands of
police officers--highlight the links between the issues of race and
reasonable suspicion of criminal conduct. Ultimately, these men are
tragic examples of the risk of being victimized by a perception of
criminality simply because of their race, ethnicity, religion or
national origin.
Despite the fact that the majority of law enforcement officers
perform their duties professionally and without bias, the relationship
between the police and some of minority communities has deteriorated to
such a degree that federal action is required to begin addressing the
issue. With recent Washington Post reports of almost 400 police-
involved shooting fatalities in the first five months of 2015, all
should agree that the time for bipartisan action is long overdue.
In 2001, I welcomed President Bush's invitation to draft legislation
that would end the practice of unlawful police profiling, with
bipartisan Congressional support. In April, I reintroduced the End
Racial Profiling Act in the hope that Congress and the Obama
Administration can come together to pass legislation that sends the
signal that the Federal government is committed to ensuring that its
law enforcement agencies conduct their activities free from bias.
In May, the Judiciary Committee, where I am former Chairman and
current Ranking Member, held a hearing on Police accountability, where
we heard from expert witnesses on police practices and discussed policy
options to restoring the relationship between the police and
communities of color.
In June, I followed up on this effort to address fair policing
practices by reintroducing the Law enforcement Trust and Integrity Act.
That bill is designed to provide incentives for local police
organizations to voluntarily adopt performance-based standards to
ensure that incidents of deadly force or misconduct will be
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minimized through appropriate management and training protocols and
properly investigated, should they occur.
The bill authorizes the Department of Justice to work cooperatively
with independent accreditation, law enforcement and community-based
organizations to further develop and refine accreditation standards,
and further authorizes the Attorney General to make grants to law
enforcement agencies for the purpose of obtaining accreditation from
certified law enforcement accreditation organizations.
Currently, there are no federally recognized minimum standards for
operating a law enforcement agency. The ad hoc nature of police
management has accordingly left many officers and agencies in the dark
about how to cope with changes in their communities. That is the real
reason police officers and department feel so adrift in the current
post-Ferguson environment--not the Black Lives Matter Movement. There
is a vacuum of leadership in policing that can only be filled by
leadership at the federal level.
Beyond the human toll created by law enforcement accountability
issues, there remains the fiscal impact created by the high cost of
litigation settlements for police abuse claims. While most cities fail
to systematically track the cost of litigation, the cost reports for
major cities have proven staggering. In New York City alone, during
Mayor Michael Bloomberg's three term tenure, NYPD payouts were in
excess of $1 billion dollars for policing claims. For small
departments, the cost of a single high profile incident could prove
crippling in its impact on public safety.
While the Department of Justice has a range of criminal and civil
authority to address policing issues, the Civil Rights Division will
never have the resources necessary to investigate more than a small
fraction of those departments engaged in unconstitutional conduct, even
with the enhanced funding and task force authority granted by this
legislation.
Through the support of a robust accreditation regime, like that
existing in healthcare, Congress can ensure that all communities have
the best trained and managed police departments. Only by establishing
acceptable police operations standards can we begin to preemptively
address issues like use of force and heal the rifts within our
communities.
Media reports from Baltimore and other cities depicting
confrontations between protestors and their police departments
illustrate the current divide between law enforcement and the
communities they police. In the past years, cities from New York to
Cincinnati and Miami to Los Angeles have experienced unrest following
controversial use of force incidents by their police. Absent a climate
of trust and accountability, community needs are not served and the
jobs of the police officers become more difficult and dangerous.
The energies of Congress should be focused on the adoption of
legislative priorities that address the substance of law enforcement
management and strengthen the current battery of tools available to
sanction misconduct. As a Congress we have been enthusiastic about
supporting programs designed to get officers on the street.
We must be just as willing to support programs designed to train and
manage them after they get there. The current national climate requires
decisive action to implement solutions. Out of respect for all who have
lost their lives over the last nine months--both law enforcement and
civilian--I hope you will join me in supporting legislation that
initiates the reforms necessary to restore public trust and
accountability to law enforcement.
Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise to join my
colleagues in speaking on the critically important issue of criminal-
justice reform.
Just last week, an African-American girl at Spring Valley High School
in Columbia, South Carolina was violently arrested by the school's
resource officer. This is a disturbing example of a law enforcement
officer using excessive force when interacting with a person of color
and a perfect illustration of an alarming trend in our schools. We need
to have a substantive dialogue around how to empower administrators,
teachers, and staff to deal with school disciplinary issues so that
students aren't being criminalized for behavioral issues.
According to the Department of Education, black females enrolled in
New York City and Boston schools are disciplined 10.5 times more on
average than their white counterparts.
African Americans seem to face undue scrutiny by police officers
throughout our communities. Black Americans are more than twice as
likely to be unarmed when killed during encounters with police when
compared to Caucasians. States and Congress must set higher standards
for the use of deadly force and must hold police officers accountable
if they violate these standards. This is the first of many steps to
begin the process of mending the delicate relationship between law
enforcement and people of color.
This disparity is increasingly evident when looking at the
composition of the U.S. prison population. The Coalition for Public
Safety argues that more than 60 percent of our prison population is
composed of racial and ethnic minorities. That is why I have supported
H.R. 3713, a comprehensive sentencing reform effort with bipartisan
support that aims to overhaul the current system which
disproportionately affects minorities.
I strongly believe that addressing the disparate treatment of people
of color at the hands of police is a fundamental step toward creating
an equitable society. As one of the first black women to be publically
elected from Dallas, I spent my entire career championing equity for
communities of color and fighting on behalf of African Americans for
social justice. It is clear that there are fundamental problems in
police and justice systems across the nation that needs to be
addressed. As a former Chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus,
these issues are of the utmost importance to me and I am personally
committed to finding long term solutions.
We must act now to remedy the culture and system of violence against
people of color. Our nation has endured this disparity for far too long
and I encourage my colleagues to not only speak out on this issue, but
also take swift and immediate action.
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