committee will come to order a clerk will call the  ms you mr jordan and by this committee to the house floor during my more than thirty years of public service i've learned that when it comes to crime policy we have a choice we can reduce crime or we can play politics with too long the congress has chosen to play  with over seven hundred people incarcerated every thousand populate a hundred thousand population the united states the world average incarceration of about one hundred four hundred thousand in the chart before us statistics even more egregious in light of what the pew foundation found in a recent study one hundred thirty one incarceration when they found that incarceration rates are higher than the range of three hundred fifty to five hundred four hundred thousand incarceration in this country has risen from nine billion dollars annually of a sixty billion dollars black on the blackboard the sentencing project estimates that one and every three will end up incarcerated in prison during their gangs however i don't feel that for the promise that is the best approach to crime prevention among america's an abundance of federal grant programs targeted specifically crime and gang prevention act the local government programs will have to be set aside or scrapped and replaced with the promise graham in order to receive the authorized funding and the nonprofit community based programs are all but left out of this legislation  eleven new grant programs created by this bill only one can be awarded to private organizations i know the sponsors of this legislation are well intentioned however i have serious concerns about the effectiveness of the new federal grants and bureaucracies created by the legislation further considering the dire state of our economy now is not the time to create more federal programs at the very least congress should avoid creating redundant programs that are the rise over a billion dollars in spending the program posed in this bill are in fact necessary then we need to make choices we should cut existing ineffective programs to pay for the new and but the bill cuts nothing it simply adds new spending one of the biggest problems that minority youth face in this country is the lack of jobs especially entry level jobs according to a recent washington post article for example unemployment for sixteen to twenty four year old black men has reached great depression proportions in october the joblessness rate for young black men was thirty four point five percent more than three times the rate for the general us population this chronic joblessness in turn can breed a lack of hope in turn young men and women away from productive lives and toward gangs drug dealing and criminal behavior we don't need to resort to this costly legislation to address this problem instead we need to focus on legislation and policies to create jobs for all americans including young black men although this bill has a lot of a purpose i cannot support the increase in spending and the redundant programs created by this legislation i urge my colleagues to oppose the bill you're back to balance my time since my days as a prosecutor i've been concerned with the threat posed by gangs i've seen the destructive impact that gangs have on families and entire communities thankfully also know that the situation is not hopeless that there are programs many of which are support in this bill that have demonstrated that they can help undo the damage caused programs to provide real alternatives to criminality and gang affiliation for young people have a proven track record of success programs that provide a path towards education and a job things that can seem out of reach for a child growing up in some of the tougher neighborhoods of this nation are particularly important in the city of los angeles we have had some success in reducing gang violence through a combination of policing and community activism according to the d since two thousand and two gang related shootings are down over sixty percent and gang crime generally is down over thirty percent this is not to say however there is not a huge public safety problem the l a p d also reports that half of the murders committed in the city this year were gang related and approximately forty thousand individuals primarily young men and boys are gang affiliated los angeles is now home to twelve reduction youth development zones areas of high gang activity at a target of the variety of programs to prevent violence and provide constructive alternatives at risk it's an approach that is taken in concert with the police department and stakeholders around the city and has shown that it can work and i believe the promise act is a thoughtful and well intentioned approach the prevention of congressman scott's commitment to this issue is inspiring and observe a tremendous amount of credit for the actual work he has done while this legislation makes real strides in providing new resources for  prevention my belief is we have a better chance of success if we pair prevention with enforcement i've had that approach in mind since serving in the state senate in california where i jointly offer the shift hardness crime prevention act provided funds on a one to one ratio for proven prevention programs and law enforcement to work in a coordinated effort to address the causes of crime and find solutions it's an approach that i've been working on in congress along with senator feinstein and it's a form of that i think c that there are additional resources and tools that we can provide law enforcement and prosecutors that will compliment this approach and provide a more comprehensive effort part of what i have in mind is  adopting a statute that we used successfully against the mafia and organized crime tailor make it to dealing with the gang problem i think that can be an important tool for prosecutors so what i'm recommending is  certainly support for the prevention that introduced in this bill about pairing it with some other reforms prosecutors and law enforcement additional tools and resources well i'd like to meet with the gentleman about some of his ideas and sir i want to thank the gentleman from virginia for bringing this bill forward and the gentleman from michigan as well and all the hard work they've done in drafting this important legislation i think it does move juvenile justice in crime prevention policy in a very positive direction especially through  focus on community involvement and i thank particularly chairman scott to work with me on this manager's amendment in allowing the restaurant to rest or to justice programs be eligible to receive funds through the gang prevention grants and the bill restaurateur just innovative approach to conflict resolution that promising results throughout the country and abroad it focuses on repairing the harm by crime rather simply punishing the offender too often we were law simply on harsher punishments which are expensive and counterproductive in the long range with you because they get in the criminal justice system and sometimes they don't get out were appropriate rest or rest of justice can serve as a cost effective and useful alternative it establishes a man adversarial process that brings together the offender the victim and other parties  major questions what is the nature of the harm from the crime how can this be repaired and who's responsible for the repair i had that happen amount person life and it worked somebody in the neighborhood went through one day with x or some kind of  instrument and cut down all the trees in front of my house and then the media through some detective work in the neighborhood we found out the type of child that would be likely to do such a thing we brought them forward and required them to plant new trees and to take care of them for a year and they did that to the best of my knowledge the rest of the forests in memphis are in good shape but not being threatened by these young people they learned a lesson and they restored what they had done that was a better way to do with an attack on the juvenile court so rest of justice invites offenders to take responsibility a great plans to make restitution process hold juvenile offenders accountable for the victims to the victims and the community and understand the impact of their actions i told the people i said you look at these trees the rest of your life and realize th trees and value trees and what they can do and i think they learned from that it was still kind of upset that my trees aren't but that's what happened restaurateur justice can provide a learning opportunity for these people that are cetera so i appreciate the opportunity to put this in the bill  and to work with us i appreciate and very much value to the of the work and the intellect of the ranking member but i read the same story the ranking member read about minority employment and the difficulties in this era f minorities particularly african americans to get jobs but i think the ranking member didn't mention is what the story kind of said is that the highest level of failure to employ african americans was the most educated as they were having a more difficult time right ratio was than any other group in getting jobs and most of that was because the clubby atmosphere of the higher income college educated jobs that they never really get listed and people who are of color don't get a job chance to apply because they others the caucasians learn about them through family friends and club memberships or whatever and they never get that opportunity those are things beyond african americans it is not necessarily these people are looking toward a life of drugs and crime and gangs etc there are a lot of things happening and i've always happen in our society that are institutional racism that can't be dealt with simply on the idea of saying go get a job because jobs aren't necessarily available because certain people have better access to jobs in our and so the government  one respect for congressman scott but secondly my hope that we would be able to come with and work on a compromise that would end up with a solution that would truly deal with f the state of california where we do the death penalty and we move towards stronger penalties including those dealing with juveniles and we brought the crime rate down by thirty percent we brought the homicide rate down by fifty percent over an eight year period of time you could have the rose one hundred thousand people nine times with the victims in california who were not victimized that otherwise would have been if the crime rate had prevailed before we made those changes in the law so i might sound like a good exercise over this but no experts tell us that enhanced penalties including the death penalty bring the crime rate down is just not true it happened in my home state of california i was part of that and i went through this debate time and time and time again one of my good friends an african american police officer with los angeles daughter murdered high school in los angeles and having a young girl happen to be african american come to me after the conference was over and saying why is it you don't do anything until someone in our communities been killed arm and this does not change that law at all so they could not be subject to the death penalty under not not if they are not currently subject to mr harper vote no mr chairman sixteen members voted fourteen members voted n chairman i'm drawing up amendment number zero zero one can you combine them all and amendment number zero one b and we have an editor so we're making the copies as we speak mr chairman the second one is being edited if you have zero one be we just had a michelle and let me first of all thank mrs scott for and the advocates who have worked without ceasing what i think a very effective approach to intervention which is the crux of his message particularly as relates to the death penalty i always think that when you have a death penalty you have a murder of sexual assault you have a victim this legislation over the years compiling from juvenile systems around the country  suggested that the aftermath of an action by a juvenile and the reaction to that does not cut an outcry this does not speak to a crime dealing with adults we're dealing with  about in this committee by my good friend congressman elijah cummings this will allow us to study the tactics or to develop tactics to counter culture and provide the opportunity for young people ought to be protected or encourage them to tell the truth the second amendment that is now developed is an amendment that would include the opportunity for authorization to work with the attorney general to develop direct partnerships on the issue of crime and this is not speak to mentoring education it's a crime and i believe the more partners that we can have on this matter the more effective our approach will be the second amendment develop an answer to the anti or an answer to the culture and develop and develop the response to the stop snitching culture and be able to work with young people to know is ok and my final one deals with expanded partnerships to stop crime now i think we can develop all of the necessary efforts that we need to develop and i asked my colleagues to support the police deal with that if people are not willing to testify in court the criminal justice system cannot work and i think this nicely into the way the bill works the other member i don't see unclear to me how you would actually get the program into the promised council consideration it would have to be a program to be considered for funding would have to be  chairman i have a question on the vote by mr langridge i have mr lundgren voting no i wanted to make sure i heard him from the ms baldwin ms baldwin votes  the clerk will report