Raising awareness and promoting education on the criminal justice system by establishing March 2008 as "National Criminal Justice Month".

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 945) raising awareness and promoting education on the criminal justice system by establishing March 2008 as ``National Criminal Justice Month''.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, Members of the House, the measure before us calls attention to a critically important issue, the state of our Nation's criminal justice system. We do this by designating March as National Criminal Justice Month, because it will serve to raise awareness of the causes and consequences of crime, as well as our crime prevention efforts. It is a subject and an area that, for too long, we have not paid close attention to, and it is our feeling that this designation will have a great impact upon our work.

Millions of Americans have been victimized by crimes, and many millions more pass through our criminal justice system. We have more than 2 million Americans behind bars, I am sad to say. This means that almost one out of every 100 Americans is incarcerated. Among African American men between the ages of 20 and 34, one in nine are behind bars. What a tragedy. What a waste of human life and potential.

The New York Times observed, ``We have become a prison nation.''

[From the New York Times, Mar. 10, 2008]

Prison Nation

After three decades of explosive growth, the nation's

prison population has reached some grim milestones: More than

1 in 100 American adults are behind bars. One in nine black

men, ages 20 to 34, are serving time, as are 1 in 36 adult

Hispanic men.

Nationwide, the prison population hovers at almost 1.6

million, which surpasses all other countries for which there

are reliable figures. The 50 states last year spent about $44

billion in tax dollars on corrections, up from nearly $11

billion in 1987. Vermont, Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan and

Oregon devote as much money or more to corrections as they do

to higher education.

These statistics, contained in a new report from the Pew

Center on the States, point to a terrible waste of money and

lives. They underscore the urgent challenge facing the

federal government and cash-strapped states to reduce their

overreliance on incarceration without sacrificing public

safety. The key, as some states are learning, is getting

smarter about distinguishing between violent criminals and

dangerous repeat offenders, who need a prison cell, and low-

risk offenders, who can be handled with effective community

supervision, electronic monitoring and mandatory drug

treatment programs, combined in some cases with shorter

sentences.

Persuading public officials to adopt a more rational, cost-

effective approach to prison policy is a daunting prospect,

however, not least because building and running jailhouses

has become a major industry.

Criminal behavior partly explains the size of the prison

population, but incarceration rates have continued to rise

while crime rates have fallen. Any effort to reduce the

prison population must consider the blunderbuss impact of

get-tough sentencing laws adopted across the United States

beginning in the 1970's. Many Americans have come to believe,

wrongly, that keeping an outsized chunk of the population

locked up is essential for sustaining a historic crime drop

since the 1990's.

In fact, the relationship between imprisonment and crime

control is murky. Some portion of the decline is attributable

to tough sentencing and release policies. But crime is also

affected by things like economic trends and employment and

drug-abuse rates. States that lagged behind the national

average in rising incarceration rates during the 1990's

actually experienced a steeper decline in crime rates than

states above the national average, according to the

Sentencing Project, a nonprofit group.

A rising number of states are broadening their criminal

sanctions with new options for low-risk offenders that are a

lot cheaper than incarceration but still protect the public

and hold offenders accountable. In New York, the crime rate

has continued to drop despite efforts to reduce the number of

nonviolent drug offenders in prison.

The Pew report spotlights policy changes in Texas and

Kansas that have started to reduce their outsized prison

populations and address recidivism by investing in ways to

improve the success rates for community supervision,

expanding treatment and diversion programs, and increasing

use of sanctions other than prison for minor parole and

probation violations. Recently, the Supreme Court and the

United States Sentencing Commission announced sensible

changes in the application of harsh mandatory minimum drug

sentences.

These are signs that the country may finally be waking up

to the fiscal and moral costs of bulging prisons.

Each year, we on all of our criminal justice systems spend more than $200 billion. The Pew Center Report states that Connecticut, Delaware, my own State of Michigan, Oregon, and Vermont spend as much or more money on corrections as they do on higher education. I think this is a disgraceful circumstance, and the policies of simply incarcerating increasing numbers of Americans without real opportunities for rehabilitation fail those who go through the criminal justice system, but, more than that, it hurts and diminishes every American.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I only have a little bit more to add, and so I yield myself a little more time.

This measure is a good one even though it comes a little late. Some may have noticed that this is for a celebration in March, and this is April. The reason is that we couldn't get it on the schedule before now, but there were many celebrations in connection with this matter that occurred.

I want to commend the judge and distinguished member of the Judiciary Committee from Texas who is managing the bill for his personal comments that he has brought to this matter today. I can imagine the kinds of things that not only him but members of the judiciary across this country are seeing, heartbreaking incidents, circumstances and experiences.

There are so many people that are incarcerated, they are in prison because of nonviolent offenses, of sentencing procedures that are really out of the hands of the court. People think of the unlimited powers of the judiciary. Many times they are restricted in terms of what it is they can do and how they can handle the matters that come before their courts.

I am impressed that our colleague would tell us of some of the things that move him in his experience in the judiciary. Now I don't want to think that he was driven from the judiciary to the Congress because that is like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire; but I am happy that he serves on the committee with great distinction, and we always are pleased to be able to work together on these kinds of matters.

In that spirit, I urge the support of H. Res. 945.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman for yielding, and I also want to thank the chairman for moving this piece of legislation.

I introduced this legislation to declare March as National Criminal Justice Month, and the purpose is to educate Americans on how important our justice system is and encourage discussion on how to prevent and respond to criminal conduct.

Our criminal justice system employs over 3 million Americans at the local, State and Federal levels of the government. And the word and the emphasis should be on the phrase ``justice system'' because it involves the cooperation of law enforcement and prosecutors, courts, correctional officers, and many other persons.

In my former life, I spent 8 years as a prosecutor in the Houston area, and then I spent 22 years on the criminal court bench in Houston, hearing over 25,000 felony cases.

When I came to Washington, D.C., I established the bipartisan Victims Rights Caucus to advocate on behalf of crime victims and law enforcement. It is apparent to me that victims need a voice in Congress. They don't have high paid and high-dollar lobbyists; they expect Members of Congress to be their advocates.

Each year, millions of Americans become victims of criminal conduct, everything from stealing to homicide, and these individuals do not choose to become victims. They are thrown into the criminal justice system without ever having a say. The devastating consequences of crime remain with the victims long after the crime is over with; and the purpose of the criminal justice system is to provide closure for victims and punish people who commit crimes against the rule of law, which is society's rules of law.

I hope this resolution encourages communities to discuss the causes and the consequences and long-term effects of criminal conduct. When a crime occurs, a community must respond by apprehending the individual and ensuring appropriate punishment if that person is found guilty, and, of course, helping the victim that is in need.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 35 percent of Americans have little or no confidence in our criminal justice system. It is unfortunate that one-third of the people in this country feel that way. If you turn on your local news each night, the first thing that most local newscasts have is the latest crime that has been committed in a neighborhood. It is mostly bad news, and much of that bad news is about criminal conduct. Americans should have more confidence in our criminal justice system. I am convinced that our criminal justice system is the best system in the world.

I had the opportunity to visit the former Soviet Union. They don't have a criminal justice system. They just have a system. The same is true with China, when I visited their system on how they administer their laws. There is no justice in that system. It is just a system.

And here in the United States, we do have the best criminal justice system in the world on determining the guilt of an individual and giving defendants and victims of crime certain rights in the court, and maintaining the worth of the individual. Every year individuals, communities, businesses, and all levels of government spend millions and billions of dollars administering our justice system. The cost of crime is not cheap, and the aftermath of crime is not cheap either. Yet the price is worth it because of the price we pay to ensure our order, safety and appropriate punishment for those who fail to follow our laws.

As my fellow Texan and former judge, Judge Gohmert, has mentioned time and time again, there are numerous cases where we both have seen individuals who have come to the criminal justice system that have been victims of criminal conduct. And long after that trial is over with, even if the offender is convicted and sent to the Texas penitentiary for the maximum period of time, they suffer the repercussions of criminal conduct. Many of them are never able to cope with that conduct, and spend the rest of their lives in desperate hope, and wishing that crime had not occurred against them.

We as Americans need to be sensitive to those individuals. We need to be sensitive to the people who live among us who have crime committed against them.

So I hope this resolution gets more communities talking about the best way to prevent and respond to crime, and I want to urge its adoption.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I appreciate Mr. Conyers, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, for whom I have great respect. This bill was on the calendar to take up in weeks past, but it was pulled a number of times, resulting in it being taken up at this time. We are grateful that it has been allowed to come to the floor.

I rise in support of House Resolution 945, and I want to commend my good friend and fellow Texan, and also fellow recovering judge, Ted Poe, the original sponsor of this legislation, for his dedication and commitment to the issue of criminal justice.

The goal of this resolution is to raise awareness and promote education of the criminal justice system by establishing March as the National Criminal Justice Month. It is important that Congress encourages Americans to learn more about the criminal justice system, and the approximately 3 million Americans who work within the system.

As a former prosecutor, judge and chief justice, I have been honored to be involved with some of our Nation's best who work in the criminal justice system for some time. Throughout that experience, I have been consistently impressed with the professionalism and the ability of the public servants who work in the field of criminal justice. These brave and dedicated Americans work every day to make our country safe for ourselves and for our families.

Further, it is important to recognize the gains that have been made in combating crime across the Nation. Crime rates began dropping within the last 20 years as more tools were given to law enforcement and the more dangerous criminals have been locked up for longer periods of time, though there are some who are working to reverse that decade-long trend.

I have great respect, as I said, for the Judiciary Committee chairman, who mentioned the reference to this being called a prison nation; and it is tragic that we have so many people who are locked up. I must say that one of the things that concerned me and drove me from the bench were having an increasing number of people who ended up in the criminal justice system before me as a district judge, having allegedly committed felonies, and in the cases I

am talking about where they admitted them, told about their background, had testimony about it in court, but it began to break my heart.

Back in the 1960s, we had legislation called The Great Society legislation that was well intentioned. There were single mothers that were seen to be trying to survive with only a deadbeat father to help. And the Federal Government looked, saw the need and said let's help these people. They began giving checks to women for each child born out of wedlock. And I began having more and more young mothers, some older mothers, who would have a child out of wedlock, many times encouraged to do so by people they respected and loved, and they found out rather quickly that check will not allow the individual to live a decent living and take care of the child. So they would have another child, thinking that two checks would help, and then three.

It broke my heart that our Federal Government had lured people into a rut and not given them a way out. So it is important that we be careful in considering legislation that we pass. Of course, everybody has to be responsible for their own actions, but the legislation we pass is important, and I think it is wonderful that my friend, Mr. Poe, has sponsored this legislation, and that our chairman, Mr. Conyers, has encouraged this and supported it, in establishing March as the National Criminal Justice Month.

Congress will provide an opportunity now to educate Americans through this designation about the criminal justice system, and will make Americans more aware of causes and consequences of crime, as well as how to prevent crime and how to respond to crime. This resolution will also recognize and applaud the efforts of law enforcement officials, judges, court staff, and the many probation and parole officers who work with offenders to help them reintegrate into the community. Those are all important positions. We appreciate them all. I urge my colleagues to support the resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as the right honorable Judge Poe may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 945, raising awareness and promoting education on the criminal justice system by establishing March

2008 as ``National Criminal Justice Month,'' introduced by my distinguished colleague from Texas, Representative Ted Poe. This important legislation calls on policymakers, educators, criminal justice officials, community leaders, victim service providers, nonprofits, and others to promote awareness of how to prevent and respond to crime through the creation of a National Criminal Justice Month.

A country's criminal justice system is often a reflection of what values the society deems to be important. Our criminal justice system serves as a means for society to enforce the standards of conduct necessary to protect individuals and the community. During this month we need to be mindful of the need for criminal justice reform. Currently, there are approximately seven million adults on probation, parole, or are incarcerated causing the cost of crime to individuals, communities, businesses, and the various levels of government to be well into the billions. I have sought to alleviate a number of the sentencing disparities responsible for such frivolous government spending through various pieces of legislation, including my ``The Second Chance Act'' and ``The Drug Sentencing Reform and Cocaine Kingpin Trafficking Act of 2007'' that will help to lessen some of the economic and social burden. Our focus should be to educate Americans and to promote awareness within American society as to the causes and consequences of crime, as well as the strategies and developments for preventing and responding to crime.

The American people deserve to have a knowledge of the criminal justice system; thus, allowing society to feel safe in their homes as well as on the streets. In 2006, fifty percent of Americans admitted they feared that their home would be burglarized when they are not home, thirty-four percent of American women feared that they would be sexually assaulted, and forty-four percent of Americans feared they would be a victim of a terrorist attack. That is unacceptable. Americans need to be educated about the criminal justice system and how it works to protect all Americans.

During this month there has to be a joint effort between policymakers, criminal justice officials, educators, victim service providers, nonprofit organizations, community leaders, and others to promote awareness of how to prevent and respond to crime. It is imperative that we reach out through all the above names avenues to ensure that each and every American knows just how their criminal justice system operations protect them.

This important legislation creates an avenue through which to educate the American people about the criminal justice system as well as the causes and consequences of crime, how to prevent crime, and how to respond to crime. I strongly support this important legislation and urge all my colleagues to do the same.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H. Res. 945, a resolution that establishes March 2008 as ``National Criminal Justice Month.''

Prior to joining this body, I worked for 33 years as a member of the King County Sheriff's Office, eventually becoming the elected Sheriff of King County in 1997. I could not agree more with the sentiments of this Resolution and want to personally thank each one of the approximately three million Americans working within our nation's criminal justice system today.

I know a job in the criminal justice system, no matter what it is, can often be thankless and tiring. The pressures of family, life and service can be overwhelming. I also know the physical and mental toughness that is required to perform these duties. However, the excitement of a job well done and the respect given to these heroic men and women outweigh the sometimes unpleasant challenges they face.

Those who serve in our criminal justice system today are tasked not only with protecting our communities and neighborhoods but also with protecting our homeland and serving on the front lines of our war against terrorism. Within this framework, the job these brave public servants are doing is truly remarkable. Although sometimes it is hard to feel and see, the gratitude of the American people and this body for our dedicated public servants will not waver.

I ask--as the Resolution does--that we all look seriously at how we as individuals can prevent and respond to crime to help the public servants we too often take for granted.