National Criminal Justice Month
Floor Speech
NATIONAL CRIMINAL JUSTICE MONTH -- (House of Representatives - March 04, 2009)
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to commend Congressman Ted Poe of Texas for introducing this legislation.
Establishing March 2009 as National Criminal Justice Month will help increase awareness of the harmful effects of crime, not only on the immediate victims, but on our society as a whole. It will also help bring public focus on the need to make our criminal justice system as effective as possible, not only in responding to crime, but in helping to reduce its incidence.
Millions of Americans have been victimized by crime. Millions more are on parole, on probation, or incarcerated. And our Nation spends billions of dollars each year on efforts to address crime. And yet too many Americans say they have little confidence in the criminal justice system.
There are a number of steps we can take to address this lack of confidence. For one, we could invest more resources in education. Educated Americans not only have more opportunities, they also have a greater appreciation of the effects they have on the world around them, and they certainly have a much dramatically lower incidence of criminal behavior.
By failing to invest in education, we have allowed a cradle-to-prison pipeline to develop. What we should be building is a cradle-to-college pipeline instead. And we see the unfortunate results on any given day, over 2 1/2 million incarcerated in our prisons, almost all of them poor, almost two-thirds of them African American or Latino.
There's another thing we need to do, and that's to focus beyond the step of incarceration and to think about rehabilitation, keeping first-time offenders from becoming repeat offenders. That requires investing meaningfully in vocational training, education, counseling and other skills development that prisoners need in order to re-enter society and become productive citizens.
Congress took an important step in that direction last year when it passed the Second Chance Act. Now we need to follow through with adequate funding to make its promises take hold.
Third, I think it's time we acknowledge the failure of the so-called War on Drugs as our government has fought it over the last few decades. Increasingly stiffer and stiffer sentences for non-violent drug offenses hasn't worked, not to significantly reduce illegal drug use or the criminal enterprise that has grown up to feed it. It's worked only to swell the prison population.
It's time that we brought more of the focus on intervention, treatment and yes, fact-based education to come to grips with the drug problem. The Drug Courts program has been more successful in curtailing recidivism because of its focus on treatment. Studies show that those sent to Drug Court have a 1-year recidivism rate, only one-sixth as high as those sent to prison for a similar offense.
I believe making this month National Criminal Justice Month can help the many in our communities who are dedicating themselves to reducing crime bring greater awareness to their efforts.
I encourage my colleagues to support H. Res. 45 as well.
I reserve the balance of my time.
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Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I once again commend the gentleman for introducing this legislation. I urge its passage. I share his enthusiasm for our system of justice, that preserves the rights of the defendant but also elevates the needs of the victims for justice.
We honor those who work in our system, be they judges, prosecutors, defense counsel, police officers, and I would say, yes, also drug treatment people who are trying to prevent crime from recurring. So this month celebrates those in our community who serve in the criminal justice system. They deserve our thanks.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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