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Jesse Ventura      Rebuttal 3

Question 3: Given Minnesota's climbing prison population, the public pressure to reduce taxes and an apparent stalemate in the war on drugs, how would you, as governor, balance the cost of criminal justice with the need to ensure the safety of Minnesotans?

Providing a safe environment for all Minnesotans is a crucial 
role of Government.  Statewide, violent crime increased 12 
percent between 1991 and 1996.  Reports of gang activity and 
violence come from cities far from the urban cores of St. Paul 
and Minneapolis.  Juvenile offenders accounted for almost half of
the violent crimes committed in 1997.  It is imperative that we 
enhance sentencing, enforcement and prevention efforts to stem 
the tide of violent, gang and juvenile crime.

Gang members should know that if they come to Minnesota, they 
will spend time in prison if they commit a gang-related felony.  
Secondly, we must give police statewide the tools they need to 
arrest and prosecute gang members.  Finally, prevention is the 
way to break the vicious grip gangs have on neighborhoods.

These recommendations have been effective in St. Paul, where 
reports of violent crime like homicide and rape has dropped 17 
percent and 7 percent, respectively, in the last two years.

In my crime initiative I released in August, I outlined several 
initiatives to help ensure the safety of Minnesotans.  In that 
plan I called for funding for the Gang Council and Strike Force 
to be doubled - to  $7 million annually.  I also called for 
designating the Commissioner of Public Safety chair of the Council, 
which would allow the Governor to make gang enforcement a priority.

We should also increase mandatory minimum sentences for gang members 
convicted of felonies.  Specifically, I called for increasing the 
minimum sentence from one year to five years for felonies committed 
for the benefit of a gang, a ten year mandatory prison sentence for 
a gang-related felony involving firearm use and a 20 year mandatory 
sentence for rape committed in association with a criminal gang.

Guns and gangs are tragically linked.  When guns are used illegally, 
we must establish statewide policies to trace the source of those guns, 
restrict plea agreements, and require consecutive sentencing for each 
gun offense committed.  

People under age 18 constituted 30 percent of all arrests during 1997.

Sanctions vary considerably.  Many criminal justice professionals believe 
that juvenile offenders are not held accountable for their crime.  I 
propose we establish statewide guidelines for juvenile offenders to 
provider stricter sanctions earlier and ensure supervision and 
accountability, lower the age of presumptive certification for violent 
offenses from 16 and 17 years of age to 14 and 15 years of age, and fund 
four pilot regional juvenile assessment centers to allow a more comprehensive 
assessment of a juvenile's history to develop a broader solution to the 
problem.  While we need to be tough with young criminals, we know that 
enforcement here requires a wider net.

We also must work to reduce crime at the source.  No single law, no matter 
how well enforced, will suffice.  Public-private partnership, prompt 
intervention and services, and supervision and mentoring are essential.  
I support advocating community schools to allow parents and neighborhoods 
to become involved in their children's education and expanding the Boston 
Project, a crime-fighting approach that coordinates police, probation, 
federal agencies and state efforts which include increasing probation officers 
to strengthen community supervision.

Total fiscal impact of the proposals is estimated at $20 million annually.  
However, any cost on the prevention side of the crime agenda is tripled once 
a crime is committed.  Public safety has always been my priority, as a 
prosecutor in the Attorney General's office, as the Mayor of St. Paul, as 
it will be as Governor.