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Public Statements

Issue Position: Crime

Issue Position

Location: Unknown

Issue Position: Crime

After a decade of growth, the incidence of violent crime in America suddenly began to drop in the mid-1990s, due to our strong economy, changing demographics, expanded imprisonment, and policing innovations. Today there is more cooperation than ever before among federal, state, and local level law enforcement and as a result, violent crime rates are near historic lows.

However, we still operate under a revolving-door system of criminal justice where violent criminals too often are on the streets after serving only a fraction of their sentence. Overcrowded prisons force us to release criminals before they have served their time, and the endless appeals process for death row inmates has greatly diminished the death penalty's deterrence.

While quadrupling the number of people in correctional facilities over the past 30 years has played a major role in reducing crime, America's burgeoning prison system has done a poor job of ensuring that convicts leave the prison gates ready to lead productive lives.

America releases 600,000 prisoners each year, does little to prepare them for work or school andnot surprisinglyre-arrests over two-thirds of them within three years. Few released convicts find full-time work and many abandon spouses and children. People who have already spent time in prison or jail move back to some of America's poorest neighborhoods to terrorize neighbors who can ill afford the costs of crime.

This must stop. We must keep violent offenders behind bars, and we must also make sure that the criminals we release are morally, intellectually, and financially capable of living legitimate and peaceful lives.

I have consistently supported legislation that ensures stiff sentencing and adequate funding for law enforcement and prisons. The prison and jail population reached a record high of 2.3 million in 2007, and current facilities simply cannot handle such large numbers. I have long believed that we should convert closed military bases into prison facilities. And, once prisoners are there, they should be put to work, where they will not only learn the value of hard work but they will also acquire skills they can use once they are released.

We need to send criminals the message that crime will be punished. Only when criminals truly fear the law will they think twice about their actions, and law-abiding citizens will have confidence in the safety of their own homes.

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