[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 14954]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




    A NATIONAL SECURITY CONCERN--UNATTENDED CRIMINAL JUSTICE ISSUES

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 5, 2007

  Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, criminal justice issues continue to plague 
our communities to the point that they threaten our national security. 
In this Congress we should make a commitment to address the issue of 
illegal guns distribution, recidivism, crack-cocaine sentencing 
disparities and systemic disenfranchisement of ex-offenders. We owe 
this to the many, primarily minority, families that are destroyed every 
year because of these devastating social ills that can be prevented.
  First, the use of illegal guns is a serious problem across America. 
Everyday illegal guns are used to commit violent crimes, particularly 
in urban communities. The loss of life as a result of use of an illegal 
gun has ruined families and communities. We can no longer stand and 
watch as criminals illegally obtaining guns and use them to cause 
havoc. I serve as co-chair on the Congressional Task Force on Illegal 
Guns. Our focus is to address the Tiahrt Amendments, a series of 
``riders'' in recent Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriation bills 
that limits local law enforcement access to data on gun tracing. These 
amendments which have become increasingly restrictive since Fiscal Year 
2003 deny local law enforcement agencies the ability to identify 
illegal gun traffickers.
  National security encompasses addressing issues that lead to poverty 
and hopelessness, for these feelings of despair threaten the safety of 
all Americans. Preventing individuals who have served their time in 
jail from obtaining employment, education and health care only leads to 
the unfortunate alternative; resort to careers in crime. Almost all 
states have in place a system of expunging records or providing a 
meaningful chance for ex-offenders to rebuild their life. The federal 
government has no such system. Therefore, I introduced H.R. 623, the 
Second Chance Act of 2007, which provides that federal ex-offenders 
have the same second chance as many state offenders. Federal first time 
ex-offenders who prove that they have fulfilled all requirements of 
their sentence, parole and supervised released have been completed; 
they have obtained a high school or GED equivalency degrees; they have 
remained free of drug and alcohol dependency; and they have completed a 
full year of community service can qualify for re-entry into society 
and have their records expunged.
  In addition, the rate at which blacks and whites are sent to prison 
for drug offenses continues to be grossly disparate and raises a clear 
warning flag concerning the fairness and equity of drug law enforcement 
across the country. We need to continue to build momentum to eliminate 
the sentencing disparity that keeps defendants convicted of trafficking 
crack in jail far longer than those convicted for powdered cocaine. 
Under the existing law, a defendant convicted of trafficking five grams 
of crack cocaine receives the same five-year mandatory penalty as a 
defendant convicted of trafficking 500 grams of powder cocaine. In 
addition, a mandatory minimum penalty of five years is automatically 
imposed for possession of five grams of crack cocaine, whereas simple 
possession of any quantity of any other substance--including powder 
cocaine--is a misdemeanor offense punishable by a maximum of one year 
in prison. To begin to address this, I introduced H.R. 460, the Crack 
Cocaine Equitable Sentencing Act, moves us one step closer to 
eliminating the disparity in sentencing for crack and powder cocaine 
offenses.
  Finally, deprivation of the right to vote is not an inherent or 
necessary aspect of criminal punishment nor does it promote the 
reintegration of offenders into lawful society. Nationally, an 
estimated 5.3 million Americans are denied the right to vote because of 
laws that prohibit voting by people with felony convictions. This 
fundamental obstacle to participation in democratic life is exacerbated 
by racial disparities in the criminal justice system, resulting in an 
estimated 13 percent of Black men unable to vote. The impact on the 
political power of the minority communities is nothing short of 
devastating. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support 
legislation that will help address the criminal justice issues that 
have been left unattended for far too long.

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