Mr. Chairman, I am a cosponsor of the amendment and strongly support it. I think the issue of parole is not what we are dealing with here. However an individual State wants to handle it, wants to pass out the sentencing, is fine with us. The question is are they going to pass out strong sentences? If they do it under a parole system and hold them for longer, the point of this bill is to try to give incentives to States to hold the most dangerous of criminals, murderers, rapists and child molesters for as long a period as possible so that they do not reoffend. 

We are trying to drive dollars out to encourage that decision and to move them in that direction for a very good reason. We want to protect the citizens of our country. 

There are many reasons for punishment in crimes, but one of the biggest is to protect society with a very simple notion. If an individual who is given to committing crimes is behind bars, they are not victimizing other people. That is one of the clearest ways to protect our citizens, is to lock them up when they have made it clear that they are dangerous to the citizens. 

Right now, too often crimes as serious as rape and child molestation have very short sentences and those people are free to reoffend all over again. We need to do a better job of protecting our citizens, and I commend the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. SALMON) for putting forward this modest piece of legislation to try to do that, to try to give States the encouragement they need, the financial encouragement, to hold these dangerous offenders for a longer period of time. 

There are many reasons why the crime rate has fallen in recent years, but one that should not go unnoticed is that we have increased punishment for crimes of all types, but certainly of the most serious nature. That keeps dangerous offenders off the streets so they cannot reoffend so that we can protect future victims. 

I again commend the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. SALMON) for bringing this piece of legislation forward and hope that the effect of it will be to save lives and to keep dangerous offenders behind bars where they cannot victimize the people that we represent.