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 .  