"(metallic jangling)" "(heavy metal door slams)" "(country western song playing)" "(men chattering)" "¶ Wanted man in California ¶" "¶ Wanted man in Buffalo ¶" "¶ Wanted man in Kansas City ¶" "¶ Wanted man in Ohio ¶" "¶ Wanted man in Mississippi ¶" "¶ Wanted man in ol' Cheyenne ¶" "¶ Wherever you might look tonight ¶" "¶ You might see this wanted man ¶" "¶ I might be in Colorado ¶" "¶ Or Georgia by the sea ¶ -(door slams)" "¶ Working for some man ¶" "¶ Who may not know at all who I might be ¶" "¶ If you ever see me coming ¶" "¶ And if you know who I am ¶" "¶ Don't you breathe it to nobody ¶" "¶ 'Cause you know I'm on the lam ¶" "¶ Wanted man in Albuquerque ¶" "¶ Wanted man in Syracuse ¶" "¶ Wanted man in Tallahassee ¶" "¶ Wanted man in Baton Rouge ¶" "¶ Well, I've had all that I wanted ¶ (radio chatter)" "¶ Of a lot of things I had ¶" "¶ And a lot more than I needed ¶" "¶ Of some things that turned out bad ¶" "Get the ball!" "¶ Ba-da-dah ¶" "¶ ¶" "¶ Yes sir!" "¶" "(heavy metal door slams)" "¶ Here I come, Miss Daisy ¶" "(men whooping) ¶ Yeah ¶" "(audience cheers, applauds)" "¶ ¶" "I'm a first time offender." "Life sentence with no parole." "My business was kind of going under." "The economy was bad." "I had two small kids." "I borrowed some money from a guy that was doing what he was doing, and had to pay him." "Well, time came to pay, and I couldn't." "I didn't have the money, so I basically" " He said, "Well, you take this and get the money."" "That's where I started." "Just trying to survive." "¶ ¶" "I'm still in prison 19 plus years later." "It doesn't take five or 10 years for a person to be rehabilitated." "And it surely doesn't take 20, 30, 40, 50 years, because your life's gone." "Your life's completely gone." "¶ ¶" "Rickey Reed:" "May the 30th, '96." "Yeah, he missed out on a whole lot." "Thinkabouthimeveryday." "MatteroffactIsend him acardeveryyear for his birthday, Father's Day, Christmas," "Thanksgiving, and everything." "And he do the same thing to me." "Oh yeah." "Hewasn'tno criminalguy ." "Didn'tsmoke,didn'tdrink, didn'tdonothing." "Yup, but that's the way life is." "Got the foreign parts there." "We got the American parts here." "Rebuild 'em here." "Sand blast 'em here." "Wash 'em there." "This is my daddy's shop." "He had 88 people work there, and you see right there, it says, "Reed's Parts Company."" "And I'm still doing Reed's Parts Company." "That's all we know." "I don't know what to say." "I'm just waiting on him to get home." "¶ ¶" "Thesystembackwards." "It'sjustbackwards." "I bet you we haven't talked about him like, you know, no more than three times, you know, 'cause, you know, it hurts." "¶ ¶" "(sobs softly)" "Yup. (sighs)" "But we don't talk about it." "Aw, yeah." "Grace Reed:" "Ittakesatollonyou, when you sit down at the dinner table," "Christmas, and Bobby's not there." "Thanksgiving, he'snotthere." "Childrengraduate... (voice breaking) he's not there." "Miguel Moore:" "Father God, and you know that his mother has been doing those 19 years..." "Yes, Lord." "...every day that he's done." "Yes, Lord." "LaToya Stewart:" "I'mangry... andI 'vebeenangry fora longtime." "(voice breaking) That was the summer going into my senior year of high school." "I graduated valedictorian." "I went on to... go to-- go to college." "I went away to school and I graduated cum laude." "Then I got my master's degree." "Five years ago I got married, and a year and a half ago I had my first son, and for every one of those celebrations... there was an invitation list." "And his name was always on the list." "ButI knewhe would neverbepresent." "Andwhat'sso frustrating is that even though he wasn't there, a lot of my success I attribute to him because he coached me along the way." "Miguel:" "In the mighty house and name of Jesus." "My Lord. my Lord." "(chattering) Bless you." "God bless you." "You know, good people can make bad decisions, but you shouldn't be punished for it for life." "¶ ¶" "America incarcerates more people than any other country on Earth." "We're home to less than 5% of the world's population, but 25% of the world's inmates." "Today there are 2.2 million people behind bars in America." "Now that's a 700% increase since 1970." "Welockup hundreds ofthousandsof people fornonviolentoffenses, andasaresult, ourprisonsystemis disastrouslyovercrowded, andwespend about$ 80billionayear justtokeepitthat way." "Meanwhile, it's minority communities that are getting hit hardest." "So we're here in Washington to find out for ourselves just how broken the system is." "Now,perhapsthebestperson toanswerthisquestionis formerAttorneyGeneral EricHolder." "Sowesatdowntotalk withthisformerjudge and federal prosecutor, who from 2009 until last year, oversawtheentire JusticeDepartment oftheUnitedStates." "So we have a problem with over-incarceration in this country." "You have whole communities, you know, that either are locked up or know someone that's locked up or have been affected by being locked up." "Is the American criminal justice system today broken?" "Well, people in various communities, and especially communities of color, poor communities, see a criminal justice system that they perceive to be unfair, and, in fact is, in many ways, unfair." "(police radio chatter)" "Andtheysee individualinstances ofpeopletheyknow beingtreatedtooharshly." "Serving,youknow, toomuchtimeinjail ... being held in jail, because they can't make bail." "And that builds up resentment over time... (police radio chatter) ...andthenthereis aflashpoint." "Get out of the car!" "Get out!" "(gun firing)" "(siren wails)" "Holder:" "Police-civilianinteraction thatresultsin adeath, where people think it was unfair." "(gun firing)" "And that's the spark..." "Mmm." "...that hits that powder keg of resentment, and then you have what we saw in Ferguson." "(man shouts)" "(people shouting)" "(man shouts)" "Smith:" "Youpresidedover thatinvestigation of what happened in Ferguson." "And what did you learn in that investigation?" "I think what we saw in Ferguson was a justice system that was out of control." "Smith:" "Mm-hmm." "Holder:" "A determination made thatthewaytofund  governmentwas toarrestpeople, involvethem inthejusticesystem, (people shouting) putquotason cops-- makesurethat theywroteenoughtickets." "Onceyougotpeople intothesystem, treatthem inanunfairway  sothatyou builtupthefines, builtupthefines." "Um, and people got that." "They understood what was happening." "Hands up!" "Hands up!" "Don't shoot!" "Don't shoot!" "Holder:" "When I went toFergusonandtalked topeopleoutthere, thesenseof anger waspalpable." "It pisses people off." "(shouting)" "Holder:" "Whenanincidentoccurs, allofthisaccumulated anger,um,explodes... unfortunately, like I suspect we're going to see in other parts of this country as other incidents occur." "It's not just about here in Ferguson." "It's about North St. Louis, South County," "North County, Kansas, Oklahoma, Illinois," "New York-- everywhere." "It's happening every day." "Smith:" "In April of this year, the city of Baltimore erupted when 25-year-old Freddie Gray diedfrominjuriessustained while being taken into custody by local police." "(crowd shouting)" "Justice!" "Freddie Gray!" "Justice!" "Freddie Gray!" "Justice!" "Freddie Gray!" "Justice!" "Freddie Gray!" "The man was murdered." "Clearly." "¶ ¶" "Man:" "Hold the line!" "Hole the line!" "Right near here, you had the same thing happen in Baltimore." "What's happening with policing in America?" "Well, I think we're at a..." "a crossroads." "Thereiscertainlyadivide thatexistsbetween communitiesofcolor andlawenforcement inthiscountry." "This is not just about Freddie." "People tired of this shit." "Treating us like animals, as they call us, thugs, as they call us." "This notion of implicit bias, you know?" "Mmm." "Seeing a young black man and just making an assumption about who he is, what he's about, how likely is he to be involved in criminal activity, simply because of the way he looks." "(chanting) Smith:" "Now it's notjustthehead oftheJusticeDepartment who'scallingoutbias inthesystem." "Policeofficersthemselves arebeginningto speakup." "SergeantMichaelWoodis adecorated11-yearveteran oftheBaltimorePolice Department." "When I was a sergeant, we were routinely one of the best squads in the city." "¶ ¶ Butwhywerewe thebestsquadinthecity?" "Wewerethebestsquad becausewehad themostarrests, andI am feedingthosestats with nothing but almost exclusively those black males inthe16-to-24- year-oldrange, andit'snotnecessarily becausethey'retheones committingthecrimes." "Thosearetheoneswe're supposedtobe focusingon by our entire mantra of what is effective criminal justice." "(people shouting)" "(shouting)" "Wood:" "When we had theuprising, it'slikeastraw onthecamel'sback that makes people finally say, "Enough is enough."" "(shouts)" "Wood:" "Whitesandblacks havebeenknown tocarrynarcotics attheexactsamerate ." "So, if we went around riling through pockets whenever we wanted in a white neighborhood," "I'm sure we'd find a lot of things, but we don't do that." "Weonlydo that intheseneighborhoods." "Why y'all hitting me for?" "In a middle- to upper-class white neighborhood, if I were to go around and I were to lock up the judge's 16-year-old child for possession of marijuana, you can rest assured that I'm gonna get a phone call that something is wrong," "and they're gonna have high-powered lawyers that are gonna come after the department and make sure that this thing gets buried." "ButifIdothat  tosomebodyin  alow-incomeneighborhood, especiallyifthey'reblack, thentheyjustget fed  into the system where they get public defenders that don't have any time, they get plea-bargained out," "and they become a nice stat for the officer and for the prosecutor that was nice and easy." "¶ ¶" "Smith:" "Now over thepast12 months, cellphonevideos andsocialmedia havefueled nationwideoutrage about racially-motivatedpolicing." "Butblackfamilies inAmericahavebeenliving withthisrealityfor years." "I think about my son." "17 years old, sweetest kid in the world." "Um..." "Middle of the night, um, he's doing something maybe he shouldn't be doing, you know, but nothing awfully bad." "Mm-hmm." "There's an interaction with law enforcement." "How is that going to turn out for him?" "Mm-hmm." "And so, you know, we have the talk." "You know?" "Mm-hmm." "Don'tputyourself ina positionwhere,um,  somethingtragic mighthappen." "It'sa conversationIhad  with,uh,withmyfather." "I thought my generation might be the last one to have that kind of conversation, but, uh, you know, I felt obligated to talk to my son probably I guess three years or so ago." "And he's tired of me talking to him about it now." "Mmm." "But I want to ingrain in him this notion of how you conduct yourself." "Smith:" "And that's not anunfoundedfear." "Asnearly75 %of those whoendup in federalprison fordrugoffensesare  eitherblackor Hispanic." "Butgettingarrestedis justthefirststep, becauseonce theyenterthesystem, theyface hugeprisonsentences, asmandatedby Congress." "These mandatory minimum sentences in the federal system resulted in disparities that were economic based, racially based, and led to the incarceration-- the mass incarceration problem, that we are dealing with even now." "Smith:" "So we asked FederalJudgeJohnGleeson, aformerprosecutor famousfortakingdown mobsterJohnGotti, howmandatoryminimumshave driventhismassivegrowth inAmerica's prisonpopulation." "You see all of these-- these people coming in, and you, by law..." "Yes." "...have to put them away for a long time." "Yes." "What happens because of that?" "Injustice happens because of that." "You look at the federal drug-trafficking defendants-- 7% of them are either a manager or a kingpin," "93% are low-level folks." "But the severity that Congress intended just for that top 7% is being spread across the entire docket." "Ifyou'rethejudgewho's imposingthatsentence, you feel pretty bad about it, 'cause your job is to do justice." "One of the reasons why we wanted to talk to you was because we want to get to know how all of this began, how we got to where we are today." "So we're in, you know, June 19th of 1986." "Crackwasnew." "HereinNewYork, themurderratewas  fourtimeswhatitisnow." "Mm-hmm." "Butthere'san event thathappens." "There's this very popular college basketball player, Lenny Bias." "Hegetsdrafted #2bytheCeltics." "Theyhaveapartyoncampus inCollegePark." "Hediesof an overdose." "¶ ¶" "I can't tell you how important that event is..." "Mm-hmm." "...becauseCongressresponds bypassingalaw that adrugtraffickingoffense infederalcourt isgoingto be mandatory minimum10years, maximum life." "But Congress made a mistake." "They triggered those mandatory minimums by drug quantity and drug type." "Ahundredgrams ofpowderedcocaine weretreatedthesame asonegramofcrack." "Mm-hmm." "That seems to be a little bit... not well thought out." "Well, Congress blew it." "You know, let's face it." "Crackwasan inner-city, poorneighborhooddrug, sotherewas aracially-disparateimpact ofthesecrackprosecutions." "We need to come to grips with the fact that we have an overly punitive and racially discriminatory system." "How do we change?" "Change comes slowly." "Smith:" "Now change hascomeslowly, becauseformore than30years, oursystemhas beenentirelyfocused ontheso-called warondrugs." "We're getting tough on drugs and we mean business." "Police!" "Reagan:" "Forthosewhoare pushing drugswesay,"Beware."" "Go, go!" "Hey, down!" "George H.W. Bush:" "Ifyouselldrugs, youwillbe caught, and when you're caught, you will be prosecuted, and once you're convicted, youwilldo time." "To go back, this was all based on the war on drugs." "Was the war on drugs successful?" "Politicians got involved in trying to decide criminal justice policy, statutes were passed, policies were put in place..." "Mm-hmm." "...that had little or nothing to do with crime reduction but had a whole lot to do with politics." "(applause)" "Last year we passed a very tough crime bill." "Longer sentences, three strikes and you're out." "Moreprisons, moreprevention, 100,000morepolice." "Go, go, go, go, go, go, go!" "Holder:" "We heard slogans aboutbeingtoughoncrime withoutanykind ofstudyor anticipation about where these policies might lead us." "¶ ¶" "Smith:" "AndAttorneyGeneralHolder isn'ttheonlyone admitting thatthewarondrugs hasn'tworked." "Did I win the war on drugs?" "No." "In fact, I don't even think I made a dent in the war on drugs." "Smith:" "JohnUrquhartis thesheriff ofKingCounty,Washington, wherehe'sbeen arrestingdrugoffenders fornearly30 years." "Urquhart:" "Youcanarrestpeople allyouwant, youcanputpeople injailallyou want, youcanconfiscate allthosedrugs, butthere'sstill gonnabemore." "We've incarcerated a whole generation of people, mostly African-Americans, and we haven't solved the drug problem, like we've purported to do." "Yes,we'veput alotof peopleinprison, butmostof thepeople thatweputinprison, oratleast agoodnumberofthem , were put there for nonviolent drug arrests." "¶ ¶" "Smith:" "Now these nonviolentdrugoffenders arenowgoingto federalprisonmoreoften andforlongerperiods oftimethaneverbefore." "And as our prison population has swelled to record levels, thesamepoliticianswho  pushedforharsherpenalties arenowstartingtorealize thattheywenttoo far ." "We had a lot of people locked up who were minor actors for way too long." "Andthatwasoverdone." "Wewerewrongaboutthat ." "I signed a bill that made the problem worse, and I want to admit it." "Holder:" "I think there are fundamentalthings thatarebroken." "Wecanfixit,  butwehavetoacknowledge-- and this is the first step-- that the system is broken." "Barack Obama:" "Ourcriminaljusticesystem isn't as smart as it should be." "It's not keeping us as safe as it should be." "It is not as fair as it should be." "You're the first African-American attorney general." "He's the first African-American president." "There's a personal..." "empathy there that maybe there hadn't been before." "I bet that's probably true, giventheexperiences thatAfrican-Americans havehadin thiscountry." "You know, we know people." "I'm sure he knows people, I know people who, um... (chuckles) who are," "I was raised with back in Queens, in New York City, who got involved in drugs, who committed some crime, and whose lives are fundamentally different." "I might have played Little League with them." "Now I'm the attorney general of the United States, and they're barely scraping by." "And that's why I think the president's approach youknow, MyBrother'sKeeper-- thiswholefocus ongivingkids,youngmen ofcolorthatsecondchance-- it'ssomethingthat hehasbeenconcernedabout" "since he was in the State Legislature in Illinois." "It's certainly something that has been of concern to me throughout my public life." "(applause) Mass incarceration makes our country worse off, and we need to do something about it." "So on Thursday, I will be the first sitting president to visit a federal prison." "(cheering)" "¶ ¶" "Smith:" "Now our previous presidentshaveactually triedtoprosecute theirwayout ofthedrugproblem." "PresidentObama istryingsomething radicallydifferent." "¶ ¶" "InJulyof thisyear, thePresidenttraveled toa federalprison inOklahoma, andheinvitedVICE tojoinhim." "This is the first time in history a sitting president has visited a federal prison." "Why?" "Why now?" "Why today?" "Why is it important?" "Over the last 20 years, we've seen... a shift in incarceration rates that is really unprecedented." "We've seen a doubling of the prison population." "A large percentage of that is for nonviolent drug offenses." "Federal drug offenders have increased 21 times since the '80s." "There's more federal incarcerations for drug offenses than there are for homicide, aggravated assault, kidnapping, robbery, weapons, immigration, arson, sex offenses, extortion, bribery, et cetera, combined." "How did that happen?" "I think there was a lot of fear." "¶ ¶" "Thewaron drugs, thecrackepidemic-- it became, I think, a bipartisan cause to get tough on crime." "Right." "We need more prisons, more jails, more courts, more prosecutors." "Incarceration became an easy, simple, uh, recipe in the minds of a lot of folks." "Newscaster:" "With Election Day approaching andpollsshowing thatdrugabuse isthepublic's numberoneconcern, today'svoting becamea contest todetermine whocouldbe toughest ondrugtraffickers." "Nobody ever lost an election 'cause they were too tough on crime." "Sure." "And so, nobody stepped back and asked," ""Is it really appropriate for..." ""somebody who's engaged in a serious but nonviolent drug offense" ""to get more time than a rapist?"" "What'sbeen interestingis thatviolentcrimerates haveconsistentlydeclined and the costs of incarceration obviouslyhaveskyrocketed." "The stats are staggering." "One in 17 white men will go to prison in their lifetime, one in three black men." "Is the criminal justice system in America racist?" "I think the criminal justice system interacts with... broader patterns of society in a way that results in... injustice and unfairness." "The system, every study has shown, is biased somewhere, institutionally, in such a way where an African-American youth is more likely to be suspended from school than a white youth for engaging in the same disruptive behavior," "more likely to be arrested, more likely to be charged, more likely to be prosecuted aggressively, more likely to get a stiffer sentence." "The system tilts in a direction that is unjust, and particularly when you think about nonviolent drug offenses." "This is an area where the statistics are so skewed, you have to question, uh, whether we have become numb to the costs that it has on these communities, whether we think it's somehow normal for black youth or Latino youth" "to be going through the system in this way." "It's not normal, and it has to be addressed from soup to nuts in order for us to get some better outcomes." "You've done drugs..." "Uh-huh." "...and you said, "Hey look," ""I've made bad decisions when I was young." ""Pretty much everybody does." ""But you know, I was in a community, or I had the ability" ""to not have as harsh ramifications for my mistakes."" "Right." "Is one of the reasons why you're here today because, perhaps, you're the first president to feel empathy for the people that are here?" "Well, I'd like to think other presidents feel the same way, but I can tell you I feel it... acutely." "WhenI movedto Chicago andI starteddoing communityorganizing inlow-incomeneighborhoods, oneofthemost powerfulthoughtsthatIhad was driving by street corners, uh, with kids who at that stage-- I was in my early 20s" "really weren't that far off from where I was, and knowing that the mistakes they made would land them, potentially, in prison... in ways that just were not true for me, growing up in Hawaii." "The notion that you or I... couldn't have easily been drawn into that, that somehow we wouldn't have fallen prey to the temptations of the streets-- that doesn't feel right to me." "That doesn't feel true." "Smith:" "The president didn'tjustwanttotalk  abouttheproblem,though." "Hewantedto speak directlytothepeople whoweredoingtime asa resultof it ." "Soheaskedtositdown withsixinmates foranunprecedented, unfilteredconversation." "How y'all doing?" "How ya doing, sir?" "All right." "What's going on?" "What's your name, man?" "Eduardo DeLeon." "Good to see ya." "Nice to meet you." "Good to see you, sir." "Timothy Jordan." "Timothy, good to see you." "It's a pleasure, sir." "Tyrone Ramsey." "Tyrone, good to see you, man." "Thank you, sir." "Arnell Stewart." "Arnell, so nice to see you." "Jesus Chavez." "Jesus, good to see you." "David Shaw." "David, very nice to meet you." "Everybody have a seat." "Well, gentlemen, thank you for taking the time to meet with me." "I know this is the first time this has ever happened." "Men:" "Yes, sir." "I know some folks have been talking to you about the reason for my visit." "One of my concerns has been how... we're dealing with nonviolent drug offenses-- the levels of incarceration have gone way up, the length of sentences increased significantly-- whether the sentencing and the price that not only individuals are paying," "but their families for the mistakes they make, are proportional, and whether we need to make some changes." "And I'm also interested in figuring out, as people get released, whether they've got the tools they need to be able to stay on the straight and narrow or whether the temptation is to go back on the streets" "and then end up back here." "So, my hope was to just have folks share their stories." "I'd be real relaxed about this thing and just have a conversation." "Pretend the cameras aren't here." "How about you?" "I'm 24." "I got incarcerated at 20 on a 64-month sentence." "I had A-B honor roll during high school." "Once I stopped focusing on my education and everything is when I started experimenting with drugs, hanging around with the wrong crowd." "¶ ¶" "You were dealing, uh, Ecstasy?" "Yes, sir." "I liked it because I was meeting a bunch of people-- you know, popularity, money, women, having fun." "But, I mean in the long run, just the simple fact that you've been incarcerated, people are quick to judge." "Right." "You know, I've tried to reach out to people that I've went to high school with and soon as I let 'em know," ""Oh, I'm in prison for selling pills,"" "they're quick to cut you off." "Right." "My little brother tells me when I got sentenced, he thought what I was doing was cool, which already shows that young people out there have the wrong mentality." "Nothing that's going on that we're doing is-- there's nothing cool about it, about being in here." "They don't realize everything that we lose." "Is your little brother listening to you?" "I mean, I'd like to say he is, but he's at that age where we all think we know everything." "(men chuckling) I remember that." "Yeah." "Sal Vega:" "IthinkIwas 10yearsold when he first got arrested, andnowI'm17yearsold, andhe'sstilldoing whathe'sdoing,so..." "Imean, he'snot,like,acriminal." "¶ ¶ He just had a problem." "Hecaredmoreabout beingaroundhisfriends ratherthanhisfamily, and, I mean, he's not a mean person." "Andwhenmy brother tellsmeprison," ""This isn't a place for you to be here." ""This isn't a place for me to be." ""It'shardhere." "Imean,it 'sno joke."" "Veronica Vega:" "We moved up here, hoping to have a better life for him, make plans like just anybody else for their kids as far as going to college and preparing 'em, and..." "I don't know." "What can I say?" "¶ ¶" "When it came to me dealing with my son and him being on drugs, itwas atotallydifferentperson." "It's like a battle you can't win." "Sal:" "Everyone always thought thathewasgonnagoon  and do good things and... knowing that he's in there now, it hurts." "It hurts the family really bad, and he's a big piece of the family that-- that now that he's missing, it really left a gap in our family." "¶ ¶" "The fact that we couldn't get close to him... because for so long we have been close to him, but through a phone and through glass..." "(voice breaking) I haven't hugged my son for so many years." "I hunger for that day." "¶ ¶" "When you think about your sentences, um," "I know this is something Shane and I were talking about-- how many of you pled out?" "Basically everybody, yeah." "Smith:" "Now the vast majority offederaldrugcases result in plea bargain deals, whichareaway toavoid thehugesentences thatthesystemmight imposeifthedefendant actuallytookhiscase totrialandlost." "Nowinapleadeal , thedefendantsays he'sguilty inexchange fora reducedsentence, nomatterhowweakthecase againsthimmightbe." "Didn't they charge you for a crime that you were supposed to have committed while you were in prison?" "Yes." "I kind of feel that" "I probably could've beat the charge, but due to my criminal background," "I was more scared of the time I was gonna get." "And you were telling me about the same thing, that you pled down for the..." "Tyrone:" "I pled down to 15 years." "I was" "My lawyer told me I would get life if I take it to trial." "Smith:" "AndJudgeGleeson explainedtous  howthesemandatory minimumsentences havedrivenplearates higherandhigher." "One way in which prosecutors use the powers that Congress gave 'em is to say to someone, "The way you're going to get out from under" ""an unjust mandatory sentence is you plead guilty."" "The federal criminal trial is kind of disappearing." "Before we had this regime, the guilty plea rate used to be 80%." "We now have a federal guilty plea rate of over 97%." "Fewer of 3% of the cases go to trial." "Prosecutors are determining how much time they're gonna get before it-- it goes to trial." "You're right." "Sometimes they use their power to compel an outcome that's unjust." "Smith:" "This can happen even if the defendant isn't actually caught dealing drugs." "Throughwhat'scalled aconspiracycharge, hecanbe convicted formerelyagreeing tocommitacrime withanotherperson." "DavidShawpled guiltytoconspiracy todistributecrack." "Nowhecontends thathewascharged onthebasis ofallegationsfrompeople hedidn'tevenknow, ona datewhenhesays  hewasalreadyincarcerated fora separateoffense." "I was indicted on a 280 gram conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, crack cocaine." "And they got three people that's willing to testify against you, that's saying that you done deal with them prior in the past of selling drugs." "So there were federal inmates..." "Yes." "...who basically said that you had been with them and..." "They said I sold them a certain amount of drugs-- sold so many times on this day." "What's weird about that, too, At the time they said I was selling them drugs," "I was incarcerated at that time that they said I was selling them drugs." "If you're incarcerated when you're supposed to be selling drugs, why would you plead out?" "That doesn't seem to make any sense at all." "The reason why I pleaded out is because it's hard to beat." "I done seen plenty of people that took it to trial and end up with a whole lot of time." "When you go to court you know, and they bring these people back, they got people you don't even know that's testifying against you." "I had people in my cases that I didn't even" "I had never had met before." "I don't even know their name." "Smith:" "However, underconspiracylaws, that'sactuallyallowed, becausedefendantscan befoundresponsible foranyearlierdiscussions aboutsellingdrugs." "They call it "ghost dope." Mm-hmm." "You talking 280 grams, but you don't have a gram of dope, you don't have a phone-- a phone or anything on a phone talking about drugs, no wire tap, none of that, but you still convict me off of he-say-she-say." "¶ ¶" "You were saying, "Well, it's three against one." ""I don't even know who these guys are." ""They're gonna say I did it because they get reduced sentences."" "Mm-hmm." "And then he gets 30 years." "You were risking the possibility of" "Yeah, I was risking the possibility and I-- you know... 30 years would be a long time." "¶ ¶" "Chavez:" "I think most of us would agree that we pleaded guilty, it's not really much of an option, especially when they're charging you with dope that you don't got-- quote, unquote, "ghost dope."" "The conviction rate's already 90-something percent." "You see people getting 10, 20, life sentences, and yet you see sex offenders walking around with five-year sentences." "Well, we've all agreed that the drugs are doing damage in our community and real damage to our kids." "Men:" "Right, right." "It makes sense for society to try and protect kids from drugs." "On the other hand, Jesus, I think your point about just-- it being proportional is important..." "Yeah." "...and keeping perspective." "I mean, I was-- I was facing 20 years." "Five years when they offered, 64 months" "I mean, that's a lot better than risking getting 20 years." "¶ ¶" "Smith:" "And for those whodon'tpleadguilty, theconsequences canbedevastating." "Forexample, StanleyWashington wascharged withintentto distribute crackcocaine." "Hetookhiscase totrialandhelost , andasaresult, wassentencedto life withoutparole inAlabamaStateprison." "Oh wow." "Look at that." "Ah!" "Man." "I had a little one-man car wash in the bottom of that garage right there." "I would wash cars." "That was my, uh, work at the time." "But actually, I, uh," "I dibbled and dabbled in drugs." "One day I was just here, and, uh, I was up in the front, therewasallkinds ofactivitiesgoing aroundintheback." "And I hear a guy say, "Stanley, Stanley, get down." "Get down."" "So I turn around, and there is police coming from around the other building with guns pointed at me." "Of course I had a pistol on me, which I tried to throw away." "(chuckles) I paid for it, but I did do it." "But I never thought they would put me away for the rest of my life." "¶ ¶" "They actually thought I was dead." "A few times, I thought I was dead." "My case is no different than a death row person, because we're both gonna die on state property." "I have life without parole." "They have the death sentence." "There's no difference." "So I came up with the idea to write these lawyers, and I wrote letters out to all of these lawyers, and one of them went out to Bryan Stevenson at the Equal Justice Initiative." "Andhejustsent amessageto me , "I'mgoingto helpyou ."" "Twoyearslater, Iwasbackincourt." "BryanStevenson mademeafreeman." "I missed a whole lot." "¶ ¶ (distant train whistles)" "Bryan Stevenson:" "StanlyWashingtonwas somebodywhowasgiven a mandatory life- without-patrol sentence even though he'd never committed a violent crime." "He was absolutely somebody who had a lot to give, butheendedup inthedrugtrade." "So we went to court and that's when we were able to get Mr. Washington's sentence reduced, and then get him paroled." "¶ ¶" "The prison population of the United States was flat most of the 20th century." "The last 50 years was this era shaped bya commitment tomassincarceration andexcessivepunishment." "Theprisonpopulationgoes from300,000to 2.3million, andthishas reallyredefinedthekind ofcountrywe are, thekindof place weinhabit." "I think the greatest tragedy of the era of mass incarceration has been its impact on people of color." "TheBureauof Justice reportedatthebeginning ofthecentury thatitexpectsone  inthreeblackmalebabies borninthiscountry toendup in jailorprison atsomepointduring theirlifetimes." "That'sa pretty shockingnumber." "The bottom line is that if you are poor, and particularly if you're a person of color, you're presumed guilty." "There is a presumption of guilt thatfollowsyou intothecourtroom." "Onceyou'rearrested, that'swhatpeoplethink." "Anditthen increasesyourburden toproveyourinnocence, to prove that you shouldn't receive this kind of extreme sentence." "Ithascreateddespair incommunitiesof color." "Isitdownwith13- and14-year-oldkids who often tell me they don't expect to be free or alive by the time they're 21." "¶ ¶" "Yeah, I did a lot of stupid stuff when I was young... but" " I've said this before-- I was just in an environment where you could afford to make some mistakes." "I had more of a margin of error that a lot of kids do, particularly if they're in a low-income community that's surrounded by a lot of drug activity, criminal activity." "Kids adapt to what they see." "(men agreeing)" "The majority of my family members were dealing drugs, so I was kind of, like, grew up around it." "And as I got older, I decided that I wanted to be a part of that." "Right." "Smith:" "Tyrone Ramsey isserving15 years on a nonviolent drug charge." "But I appreciate the time that I am here, because I'm taking advantage of it." "I'm in the college program." "We graduate in May of 2016." "So, I'm taking advantage of this time to better myself as a man for my kids, so when I get out I can be a better person to them." "They can look up to me like, "My dad has really changed his life," ""turned his life around."" "That'll be a powerful message for them." "Yes, sir." "Smith:" "Makingthisdocumentary," "Ispentalot oftime  withoffenders atdifferentprison facilitiesaround thecountry, andonething thatnearlyeveryone  ofthemsaidtome, wasjusthowpainfulitwas tobeabsentfromthelives  oftheirfamilies." "Thereareover 1.1millionfathers behindbarsin America." "At a federal prison in Memphis, I talked with the inmates about this issue." "If you look at the statistics, it's a lot of fatherless homes, so if you don't have a person teaching you the tools that you need to grow up to be a man, then quite naturally we're gonna be" "taken by the gangs, the drug culture." "I look at my life, my mother, God bless her man, she was one of the best mothers in the world, I believe." "She worked hard everyday." "She went to church every Sunday, but when I walked out my front door, because my father wasn't there," "I'd see the males-- You know what I'm saying?" "shooting dice, drinking alcohol, smoking weed, and that's what I gravitated to." "Yup." "Man:" "You have to have some type of father figure to be able teach those young boys before they make those decisions to get in the gangs." "So if you take a father figure out of a community, out of a family, that kid then has a greater chance of going to prison." "Yeah, right." "Then there's-- The whole circle continues." "It deteriorates-- It deteriorates the family." "Hey, I'm" " I'm gonna speak on that." "This is really kind of a touchy subject for me." "My father was in prison." "He had life in the feds." "Also, I'm in prison, then on top of that," "I have sons." "Two of my sons went to prison." "So they followed the same footprints as I did with my father." "Nobody was there for them." "With that being said, we need to be there for our family." "We need to be there for our sons." "But you got to start now." "The change has got to start now." "Its got to start right here in prison, and that's the only way we're going to be able to change our communities." "Do you have a life sentence?" "Yes, I got a life sentence." "But even though I'm in prison, my fathering obligations don't stop." "You know what I am saying?" "Walls can't stop me from having to be a father for my kids." "Even though I talk to 'em on the phone, write them letters, or I'm going to visit the few minutes I get to see 'em," "I still got to be a father to 'em." "I got to help them, 'cause if I get it wrong, then what's their future but where I'm at right now?" "¶ ¶" "I didn't know my dad." "And... too many of our young people don't know their dads." "And obviously..." "for them to be able to see you in a strong positive way, you know, that's gonna have an impact." "I met my dad for one month when I was 10 years old, that was the only time I met him my whole life." "Even that little one month ended up having an impact on me, so you know kids are paying attention even when they act like they're not." "That's right." "I have a teenage boy that is out there." "I have a 15-year-old, 17-year-old, and I got a 10-year-old, and an eight-year-old that's coming up." "My main thing is that they need to be busy, because when I was growing up," "I didn't have nothing to do at all." "Where'd you grow up?" "I grew up in Kansas City, Kansas." "¶ ¶" "Simone Dickson:" "Okay, we on speaker." "(Tyrone speaks on phone)" "Hey." "(Tyrone speaking)" "Yes, the same thing here." "'Cause,youknow,like wealwaystalkabout, youknow, thekidsneedtheirdad,  especially the boys." "Yeah." "They most definitely neededou here." "It's like my family's been torn for the last seven years." "(Tyrone speaks)" "Simone:" "Yeah." "Exactly." "(female voice speaks)" "(beeps) (Tyrone speaks)" "Okay." "All right." "We love you, too." "(beeps) Boy:" "Yes!" "Simone:" "It's very hard raisingtwosons." "Theyneedafather." "I don't want them to be involved in street activity." "I don't want them to be involved in any kind of gang activity." "15 years is a long time." "The fact that he is in jail and I can't, like, see him anytime I want... it's sad." "It breaks my little heart." "Itshattersme  anditshattersmybrothers, anditshattersmymom mostdefinitely, 'cause she's doing this all on her own." "IfTyronewashere, Tivontewouldbe  abetterperson, 'cause when Tyrone was here," "I didn't fight with him at all." "Ithink ithurthimthe most, 'causehehad areallycloserelationship withhisdad." "When Tyrone went away, that broke him more than it broke me." "Itdid." "He hasaheart deep,deep,deepinside, and I think Tyrone going to jail covered all of that up, so he wants to be all hard and, you know, careless." "So, yeah, I do feel like he will go to jail for something really stupid, but I hope not." "¶ ¶" "We can't raise kids in an environment where this is all they know and they're surrounded by it, and then think that somehow they are gonna be immune from the influences that they're seeing every day." "Man:" "Right." "Part of the concern that I've had is is that as a society we seem to be okay with certain communities just being locked in this cycle where kids are being raised around drug crime." "They naturally gravitate towards the drug crime." "They then get involved in the criminal justice system, and it just churns, and everybody thinks that's normal." "It's what you're saying about your brother." "Just like," ""Oh well, you're my big bro." He's going to prison." "Then he starts thinking, "I'll probably end up" ""at some point going to prison and that'll be okay."" "Your dad was in prison." "He died in prison." "Died in prison." "Now your kids start looking, you're in prison, and they start thinking that's normal." "Right." "And we can't have our kids thinking that way." "And now part of it is everybody here has got to take responsibility to try and break that cycle." "Men:" "That's right." "For me, I got involved with selling drugs, using drugs, smoking marijuana at 14, and quite frankly, before drugs I was a nerd-- book smart, straight "A" student, honor roll." "Smith:" "Arnell Stewart isa 27-year-oldfrom Denver,Colorado." "He'sserving fiveandahalfyears forconspiracy todistributecrack." "When you were growing up, was selling drugs prevalent or no, or how did it work?" "I grew up, through school, the DARE program, dare to say no to drugs." "My father, he would work sometimes two, maybe three jobs, and I also was disconnected from my mother for 12 years." "My mother was using drugs prior to my birth, and so when I was reunited with her, the drugs were the commonality." "And now you're in a drug program here." "Absolutely." "How do you think that program is working." "Is it helping you or...?" "Arnell:" "It's taught me to recognize and accept the effect that my actions and my behaviors have on my community and those around me." "Mr. Stewart." "Good morning, community." "I'm Mr. Stewart." "Men:" "Good morning, Mr. Stewart." "Arnell:" "Before my incarceration, I struggled with grandiosity a lot." "Due to my criminal lifestyle and some of the successes that I had educational wise," "I felt like I couldn't take advice from others, because they weren't as successful as me." "It hindered many of my positive relationships." "I ran off individuals who wanted to help me, individuals who could benefit me, individuals who I need right now at this time." "Recently here, I've been able to kind of reevaluate myself," "I've examined some of my thinking patterns, and I wanted to be a part of something, and there was nothing available." "Mm-hmm." "How much of that thinking relates to programs here in the prison?" "How much of it is just you being in your cell and kind of having to think through where you are?" "Well, I think the core of it is the program in here at the institution." "I found myself in prison." "Yeah, I found myself in prison." "Is there anything that, uh, you think about or worry about as you leave and readjust?" "Because one of the things that we're always concerned about is..." "The recidivism rate is, I'll be honest with you, it's pretty high." "50% of folks who get released, they're back in a year later." "So part of what we're really spending some time doing is thinking about," ""How do we make that transition effective?"" "You guys have a good mindset now, but then you get back out, you go on a couple of job interviews, it gets discouraging... your old friends call you back..." ""Yo, what's up?" "Why don't you come on over?"" "Right?" "Absolutely." "And it's easy to fall back into the old patterns." "How are you guys thinking about that?" "How are you processing that?" "Smith:" "Timothy Jordan iscurrentlyserving an 11-year sentence for a nonviolent drug crime." "I've worked at UNICOR for five and a half years and acquired real-world job skills through UNICOR." "I participated in a millwright apprenticeship program there, which is an 8,000-hour on-the-job training." "¶ ¶ Smith:" "FCI El Reno allows inmatestowork atUNICOR, whichisajob training programthatteaches workplaceskills-- abenefitthat, unfortunately, mostinmates intheUS can'taccess." "Smith:" "Yeah." "(Allan Vernon speaks)" "(Shane speaks)" "(Marcell Small speaking)" "Smith:" "Right." "Right." "Right." "¶ ¶" "Smith:" "But even with somebasicjobtraining, re-entryintosociety canproveto be  verydifficult." "DelmarSmith,forexample, wasreleasedlastyear aftermorethan twoyearsin prison ona nonviolentoffense." "Todayhelives ina halfwayhouse thatprovideshim withshelter,food, andtheuseofa car tolookforajob." "Butfindingone hasbeenastruggle." "Delmar Smith:" "UponreleaseIwas nervous." "I had never faced a situation like this." "I'm walking into the unknown, being homeless, unemployed, andthestateonly givingyou$40towalk  outtheirgateswith." "The$ 40thatthey giveyouto leavewith ain'tenoughmoney fornothing." "The system is definitely designed for you to fail." "¶ ¶" "Ijustkeepon puttinginapplications." "Itryto getin atleastfiveaday." "How many calls have I got back, interviews have I got back?" "Zero." "They don't wanna give you a second chance." "People just see you as an ex-offender." "They don't look at you as a person." "They look at your paper and say," ""Okay, well, you've been to prison." ""You're no good."" "Smith:" "Unabletofindwork, it'snosurprise thatmanyformerconvicts turnbackto crime." "PennsylvaniaSecretary ofCorrectionsJohnWetzel toldusthat therateof recidivism, orex-offenders returningtoprison, isa cripplingproblem acrossthesystem." "The national average of recidivism is 50%." "So we're spending $80 billion and failing half the time, right?" "That doesn't make any sense." "It's called corrections for a reason." "We're invested in trying to get folks on the right path and frankly, if we're being honest," "I'm not sure that we've always achieved that goal." "Sowereallyneed tobedeliberate abouttheconditions underwhich wereleasepeople." "We have to provide marketable job skills." "We have to partner with employers to actually give people a shot." "50% of the people who walk in here don't even have a high school degree." "You don't have a high school diploma and you have a criminal record?" "I'm not sure what you're gonna be successful at." "Your prospects are hit the lottery or likely become re-incarcerated." "¶ ¶" "This actually is something that we're trying to spend some time thinking about, is, first of all, trying to get employers... to not ask on job applications whether somebody's got a criminal record." "Right." "Look, they're gonna take a criminal record into account, but if they have a chance to at least meet you, you're able to talk to 'em about your life, what you've done, then maybe they give you a chance." "If they see it on an application, they may not even call you back, right?" "Right." "And so, what we know is, is that if the disclosure of a criminal record happens later in a job process, a job application process, you're more likely to be hired." "Say, I wanna open my own business, will I be able to do that?" "Right." "Will my background stop me from doing that?" "Right." "Will I be able to open my barber shop?" "You know, so that's-- You cutting hair?" "Yes, sir." "Yeah?" "Yeah." "I didn't do this, but..." "(laughter)" "No." "That's a pretty good line." "That's pretty good line." "The, uh..." "There are federal programs where we're saying, for example, on small businesses-- a lot of times the hardest thing about starting a small business is just getting the finance, the money initially, so if it's a barbershop, how do you get" "enough money to get the chairs in and..." "Right." "You gotta have a TV." "TV?" "(chuckling) I kinda wanna have a little diner on the side." "Well, that's-- see-- All right, we're gonna focus on the barbershop first." "You'll get the diner later." "But... what we're trying to do is to say just because somebody is an ex-offender does not automatically prevent them from getting financing." "That's right." "The good news is, is that politicians start realizing that the sentencing issues have to be dealt with in a smarter way." "I can't guarantee that something is gonna happen, but I'm seeing more interest in reform of the sentencing process than I've seen since I've been in public office, you know, and that's good news." "¶ ¶" "Smith:" "TodayinWashington, aCongressnotorious forbeingpolarized anddysfunctional isactuallystarting tocometogether toattackthisproblem, beginningwithabillcalled theSmarterSentencingAct ." "Nowwhileit doesn't fullyerasethedisparity betweencrack andpowdercocaine, whichisnow18to1,  thebillwouldallowfelons convictedundertheold  100to1policy toappealtheirsentences incourt." "This is as diverse and bipartisan an array of members of Congress as you will see on any topic." "And yet we are all unified in saying common sense reforms... need to be enacted to our criminal justice system." "I want people to get back to work," "I want them to get back to voting, and all of these things I think are wrapped up in stuff that really both parties can believe in, and at least some people from both parties do believe in." "Excessive mandatory minimums do not make us safer." "The last 30 years have shown us that they're applied unevenly and that they leave a gaping hole in the communities they impact most heavily." "Smith:" "Nowoneof theSenate's mostactiveproponents forchangingthesystem isMikeLee, aconservativeRepublican fromUtah." "What's the consensus within the Republican party about reforming the criminal justice system in America?" "I think everyone can acknowledge that cost savings are always good to find, but the far more important cost to consider is not the economic one, it's the human cost." "The cost of having so many fathers and sons and uncles and nephews locked up behind bars for years, sometimes extraordinarily long prison sentences that don't seem to match the crime." "Smith:" "New Jersey SenatorCoryBooker isworkingacrossthe aisle withSenatorLee totryandreform oursentencinglaws." "I joined the Senate at a time that Senator Rand Paul, Senator Leahy," "Senator Durbin, Senator Mike Lee were doing a lot of things to try to change this system, and I'm happy to join." "We have more African-Americans in this country under criminal supervision right now than all of the slaves in 1850." "These are urgencies that, no matter what your party, should weigh upon your consciousness." "They belie the truth of who we are as Americans, and we need to address them." "Smith:" "NowSenatorBookerbrings auniqueperspective tothefight." "He'stheformer mayorofNewark, acitythathas  struggledwithcrime andincarceration fordecades." "¶ ¶" "This is where you used to live here when you were Mayor?" "Yeah." "And why choose to live here?" "Booker:" "So, we looked at the sectors in the city." "This was one with the most shootings, so I wanted to move into an area where we could make a difference." "And I knew that as a mayor, you're gonna have 24-hour security, so why not have it in a community that really needs it." "I feel so connected to this city because Newark is showing the best of what America can be." "That grit, that strength that we respect about our country, but it also shows the darker parts of our nation that we don't want to talk about..." "Sure." "...where we've gone way off the rails, that's unnecessary, hyper-expensive, and violates our values." "So, you have Republicans, you have Democrats, you have the president, you have general consensus that reform is needed." "What's holding it up?" "So, you know I'm new in the Senate..." "Right." "...and when I was mayor of the city, when we would see things like, you know, we wanted to build this park right here... that kids are playing in." "And we built a park." "Right." "Right." "And the challenge with the federal legislature is it moves a lot slower." "We need a far more comprehensive focus, and we need to move with a sense of urgency." "And we have to think about how many guys, who are coming back from prison, come back with no hope, believe that there's no opportunities." "I think it was James Baldwin who said, "There's nothing more dangerous" ""than a man that believes he has no hope."" "And we see this-- almost two-thirds of the people coming out end up going right back down that slope." "Smith:" "One business ownerwemet toldushowhardit's been  forhimto stayclear ofthelegalsystem, evenafterservinghis time." "Booker:" "So, most of the fellas you know got involved in really low-level stuff, right?" "And they get that criminal conviction, and then it's a trap, right?" "How hard is it to get out?" "What are you talking about?" "We're still trying to get out, man." "I still got ties to the system." "I'm still paying." "For any crime you do, you're gonna pay a stipend." "You know what I'm saying?" "You come out of jail, you paid your debt, but you really-- you haven't pay your debt, 'cause you got thousands of dollars worth of fines." "Exactly." "What happens if you don't pay the fines down?" "We get relocked up." "Smith:" "Nowthesefeesmay vary, butalmosteverystate requiresoffenders topayforpart ofthelegalprocess, likeroomandboard orprobationcosts." "Somestates evenmakeyoupay  foryourpublicdefender." "Randellwasliving inPhiladelphia whenhewaspickedup fordealingdrugs." "Andafterservinghis time, hecouldn'tfindajob andfellbadlybehind onhisfees." "I moved back to Philadelphia." "It's like hard getting jobs and stuff down there, so I just went back to what I was doing." "I was selling drugs, and I got put up." "You go to see your parole officer and you don't have money, they will hold you." "Job or no job, and if you don't pay, you come back to jail." "Yeah." "I know one thing, I found myself selling drugs to pay back Pennsylvania." "Damn!" "Yeah, that's-- that's bad." "So my original max of three and a half to seven turned into, like, seven and a half to 15." "(laughs) Yeah, just... keep you on parole forever." "You'll never get off." "McCall was asking about you last weekend." "Again?" "Yes." "I guess it's kind of hard for them to get a grasp of you being away." "Man." "Plus, they don't think I'm in jail." "No, 'cause he believes that you're at work." "Ahh." "Yeah." "Yeah." "It's sad." "Yeah." "Smith:" "Many offenders canendup thousands ofdollarsin debt, makingitnearly impossibleforthose whocan'tfindwork topaywhatthe state saysthattheyowe ." "Andontopofallthat,  inmanystates, felonscan'tapply forfoodstamps, publichousing, oreducationloans-- effectivelystrippingthem ofthesupport thattheyneed torebuildtheirlives." "And how long were you in prison?" "Seven." "Seven." "It took me four years to get a job." "Four years." "Four years." "I had little jobs." "I had one job making $5 an hour, then I got a raise to $5.25." "I sold soap, pencils, toothpaste, T-shirts, socks-- anything I could sell, so I wouldn't go back." "Right." "And my kids would laugh at me." ""Daddy, you used to take money." "Now you..."" "So I showed 'em my check stubs." "They just rolling on the floor laughing." ""Daddy, you work for this?" "Come on, you can't even take care of..."" "I said, "Just be patient." "I'm gonna get y'all." ""I'm going" " I'm coming, I'm gonna get you."" "¶ ¶" "Booker:" "I come back to Newark, New Jersey, when I come back from the Senate, and I see this sense of urgency every single day." "We have a perspective now with our country is that we're gonna take a guy, send him to prison, and even when he's coming out, we're gonna continue to crush you, because we're gonna make sure you keep" "paying for that by denying you job opportunities, by denying you business licenses, by denying you food stamps if you're hungry, by denying you housing if you have no shelter." "When you stop at an entrepreneur who's still paying fines and fees even though he's paid his debt..." "Right." "...the urgency for me is seeing that we're dealing with the generational consequences of being the country that has the ignominious distinction ontheplanetEarth forincarcerating itsownpeople." "Wearetheincarceration championsontheplanet Earthrightnow, and we don't understand that that hurts not just neighborhoods like this, but it hurts all Americans." "We're all paying for this." "So many people are victims of this system as well as their children." "¶ ¶" "¶ ¶" "You've said-- a lot of other people have said as well-- the war on drugs has been a failure, the criminal justice system has problems." "That's bi-partisan now." "Both sides of the aisle are saying," ""Yes, we realize there's problems."" "This has become a big issue for you." "Can it be fixed?" "So, there's a whole bunch of front-end investments that we can make." "If we focus on intervening with young people early, ifwefocus evenintheschools andmakingsure thatblackboys andLatinoboysaren't suspendedathigherrates, ifwe'rereallyinvesting intheireducation," "and they're reading at a third-grade level when they're in third grade, then we know that they're less likely to get into the criminal justice system in the first place." "Ifweinvestineducation programsinprisons" "You heard those guys talking about how much of a difference it made for them." "Substance abuse programs and education programs..." "Vocational programs." "...vocational programs, sothatwe recognize-- wegottapreparethem for a better way when they get of here 'cause they're gonna get-- most of them are going to get out of here eventually." "¶ ¶ (helicopter whirring)" "(people chanting) No justice, no peace!" "No justice..." "There's an opportunity right now, right now, to get this right." "Andanybodywhodoesn't signupforitnow isnotservingthe interests oftheAmericanpeople." "If we can make progress on this subset of the problem, whichisnonviolent drugoffenses, wecanactuallyget  aworkingmajority aroundthisissue." "¶ ¶" "Booker:" "For our nation tobedoingthingsthat  arecontraryto ourvalues," "I think demands that all of us need to get up to do something about that." "You know, King said it so much more eloquently than I could, that what we're gonna have to repent for in this day and age is not the violent actions, the vitriolic words of the bad people," "but the appalling silence and inaction of the good people." "¶ ¶" "We can lose sight of how intoxicated we've become as a culture withimprisonment asa responseto crime." "We need to remind ourselves that there are real people, andrealfamilies, andrealcommunities thathavebeen altereddramatically." "Stevenson:" "When you think aboutthrowingeverybody injailsandprisons, it'sa reallyhopelessway  togovernoursociety." "It'scompletelyinconsistent witha democracy that prides itself on freedom and equality." "Lotsofpeopleare having theirlivesdestroyed notbecausetheyhaveto, butbecausewe havechosen toignore abasiccommitment tofairness, justice,andequality." "And that's the challenge of America, for me, in the 21st century." "Nothing's easy." "Most people aren't interacting with the criminal justice system and they don't see theimpact thatit'shaving ontheircommunities." "Andpartof ourjob is justtoshineaspotlight." "Ithink there'senoughempathy amongpeopleof goodwill across the political spectrum that we may be able to pull this off." "¶ ¶" "(theme music playing)"