. >>> last month virginia congressman bobby scott redu reintroduced a new statagy about gang violenceand crime. >>> thank you and good afternoon. thank you for joining us this afternoon for an important briefing on critical youth violence prevention legislation, the youth promise act. several of our panelists travelled across the country to be with us today. when it comes to crime policy we have a choice. we can reduce crime or we can play politics. for far too long congress has chosen to play politics by enacting tough on crime slogans such as three strikes and you're out. you do the adult crime and you do the adult time and mandatory minimums. although these policies sound appealing their impact ranges from negligible reaction to crime. these have led to the creation for what the experts have called the cradle to prison pipeline and reporting the subject the defense fund has identified various contributing factors including prauvty, a struggling education system. results of this pipeline are staggering. in its report the cdf has estimated that for black boys born in 2001 one in thre