We changed our programs. We were starting to make progress with teen experimentation with drugs, we started to make progress in other areas of our drug war, and yet we stopped the substantial effort and the interdiction and other programs, and this saw the trend go back up again. We have to have consistency in our Federal programs, and now our Federal truth in sentencing law is working, it is building public confidence and acting as a deterrent, and this grant program to the States is working with them as well. It is not the time to retreat from this very important program. One-half the States, as already has been pointed out, are participating in this program, receiving funding, moving toward truth in sentencing laws.
Violent crime is down.
It would be a shift in our Federal priorities and would send the wrong signal to the criminals. I believe it is important not simply because it perhaps increases punishment, but Truth in Sentencing is important because it restores public confidence in our criminal justice system. As someone said, when we create a system in which death does not mean death, life does not mean life, and a term of 10 years means 18 months with time off for good behavior, it is understandable that the public is cynical and mistrustful of that system. We are reversing that trend State by State with Truth in Sentencing laws. So it is important to build public confidence.