mr. chairman , i yield myself the balance of my time . 
mr. chairman , the opponents of this bill seem to zero in on two things . 
first of all , they are opposed to mandatory minimum sentences . 
people may have a philosophical disagreement on mandatory minimum sentences , but it seems to me that given the violence of gang activity , the number of murders , the number of maimings , that a mandatory minimum sentence is absolutely necessary to get these people off the streets if the twelve persons on the jury believe that that defendant has committed those crimes beyond a reasonable doubt . 
the other thing we hear from the opponents is , they dust off the same old tired arguments that we need more and more spending on prevention programs , but no one has proven they work . 
let us take a look at the facts . 
violent crime rates over the last 30 years have dropped dramatically , by almost 50 percent . 
at the same time , tough new determinant sentencing schemes have been enacted by congress , including mandatory minimums , truth-in-sentencing programs and other sentencing schemes where criminals go to jail for a specified period of time after their conviction . 
prison populations have grown , and crimes have gone down . 
the logic is clear . 
we have to incarcerate and incapacitate the violent criminals in our society . 
we have done so and must continue to do so . 
this bill does that . 
when we talk about spending more on prevention , consider these facts : conservative estimates show that the department of justice has already spent over $ 2 billion , that is with a `` b , '' of the taxpayers ' dollars between fiscal years 2001 through 2004 on juvenile and gang prevention programs . 
from fiscal year 1999 through fiscal year 2005 , congress has appropriated $ 3.3 billion of the taxpayers ' dollars for juvenile justice programs within the department of justice . 
have they worked ? 
this is yet to be proven , because juvenile gang violence is on the rise . 
the percentage of homicides committed by gangs has risen , and the number of juveniles committing gang murders has also risen . 
so let me say that , if $ 3.3 billion over the last 6 years in intervention and prevention programs has not turned around this type of crime when other crime has gone down , maybe the time to throw the book at those who are engaged in juvenile gang violence is at hand . 
that is why this bill ought to pass . 
i urge the membership to vote aye . 
