Rep. Waters with President Bill Clinton There are more than 1.7 million people in the Nation's jails and prisons. This means that one in every 155 U.S. residents was in jail as of 1997. Two-thirds of all Federal prison sentences are drug related. Three out of the top five charges for which Californians enter prison are drug-related. Once in prison, they become part of the huge industry that prisons have become.
Prison labor refurbishes computers, builds furniture and builds other light manufactured products.
The CBC took a stand against Barry McCaffrey, the Drug Czar, when he went against science and convinced Donna Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services to deny support for funding of needle exchange programs. The CBC also pushed for more money for drug rehabilitation in the budget and received the highest appropriation ever. We are also working with the sentencing commission to eliminate the disparity in sentencing between powder and crack cocaine offenses. Currently, it takes 100 times more powder cocaine than crack cocaine to get the same prison sentence. In conclusion, I say to you, even though the battle is tough, we cannot give up.