LIFER BILL PROVIDES A COMMON-SENSE SOLUTION IN FIGHT AGAINST CRIME

Bill Emerson is the U.S. representative from Missouri's 8th District.

In recent weeks, we have witnessed on the television screen and through newspaper headlines the serious nature of crime and violence in our nation's cities and rural communities. These incidents further illustrate the need to implement stiffer penalties for those convicted of breaking the law.

A bill I have recently cosponsored takes careful aim at locking up third-time repeat or ~three-peat" offenders of federal violent crimes and throwing away the key. The LIFER bill, which stands for Life Imprisonment For Egregious Recidivists Act, would remove violent felons from society by imposing a mandatory life sentence on anyone convicted of a Federal violent felony if that person has two or more prior violent felonies (State or Federal) on his/her record.

This concept is a novel twist on the all-American baseball phrase ~three strikes and you're out.~ If the LIFER Bill becomes law, it will be "three strikes and you're in the slammer for good.~ And when I say "good,~ I mean for all of us who want to live in safer neighborhoods and walk on safer streets.

Although some within our criminal justice system place great stock in rehabilitation, the cold truth of the matter is that most hard-core violent criminals need to be locked up for life. For instance, just 6~ of all violent offenders commit a full 70~ of all violent crimes; there is a 76 recidivism rate among those with three or more incarcerations; and the list goes on and on.

The LIFER Bill, I believe, is a common-sense solution in the fight against an issue plaguing society crime. We can reduce that fear and the chance of becoming an innocent victim by working for passage of H.R. 93. Career criminals must be put out of work for ~good," and that can happen by jamming the revolving door on jail cells.