A background in film and video as a producer and i thought theres got to be something i can do so why not combine my career and my experience with the present system and come up with something for these kids. And a parent in that camera. And that they can look at them and say. That this isnt your fault you did nothing wrong it means. Many of these men and women its the 1st time theyve really taken responsibility which is huge and thats a 1st step in recovery of any kind anytime is to take responsibility for. But even with. This little. Readiness of everybody that. I was going to go. Im going to do the best they can to stay out of this belief. For. Goodness. Its been the way. This was you guys know the numbers so can we be with. The. Next chapter. From 1980 to 1970 this whole half century of American History the rate of incarceration was roughly level at about 11400000. And this is a broad span of our history this is the ruhr in twentys and prohibition the depression and all the social change the world war 2 the postwar economic boom the the the fiftys the explosion of suburbia the sixtys and all the social turbulence through this whole period the rate of incarceration is roughly level in the United States at about 110. 00 per 100. 00 times and this reflects you know the policies of Police Departments and prosecutors and judges operating all over the country in local and state level and then in the 1970 distorts changes so that by now the rate of incarceration issue why just over 703 requests are issue for africanamericans is over 4400. 00 and so you have to wonder how does what she why did this half century of stability get up ended with this dramatic increase in incarceration in spades americas public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse once the federal government decided that we were going to have war on drugs they were able to then take a lot of money from the federal budget and send it out state of health by real. The need for money to deal with this problem i am glad that in this administration we have increased the amount of money for handling the problem of dangerous drugs 7. 00 goal it will be 600000000. 00 this year more money will be needed in the doing virtually everybodys on the drug war was the number one issue and so you had politicians in both parties and you know district attorneys and elected sheriff everybody wanted to get in to drug cases and get aggressive about new laws to punish the new agents to arrest the new prosecutors to convict them and new prisons to hold them. We move the train when i was very young when we moved here we moved you know to malones we used to always well up and down the hallways of course it was the projects so some time we will sneak up on the roof which was the top floor 12th floor and you know look out and of course i was very scared as a young child but you know when you live in the projects its always so much stuff that you can get into my brother was tragically killed when he was ran over by a truck and i remember pacifically going to the corner with a habanera and seeing all the blood because they left all the blood still in the street the traumatic experience of losing my only brother and that truck eggs and i know it had done something to me you know drugs from our scale that time was hard all the way or because my son was doing drugs my nephews was too many drugs my niece was doing drugs my sisters with doing drugs he was like an epidemic. Of drug abuse. And i cannot explain. I cannot explain my feelings because i had at that time i didnt know how i felt you know i was sad because i felt like they were different in their lives but there was not the not to do about it to change their lifestyle. That was it. After my brother passed away a kind of withdrew from a lot of things i didnt talk as much i was very quiet on probably as early as my teenage years. 1213 years old you know i started sneaking a drink in a little bit here and there started smoking marijuana at a very young age i started all selling drugs in you know he came right along with. The family you tend to trust family when i 1st saw him and then with a. In the hallway and i used to be a hall before monitor and i was stationed right in front of his locker so when i knew that he was coming to his locker i would put my hands up and like black youth wait. So he would have to say excuse me or something in that we started talking we got to know each other you know at the walk in our home many times in and out over at our house. You know my home. Wasnt really a home compared to her house margaret grew up with her parents before the parents or the nice decent house great mother great father. Something that i didnt have and i started you know just being around her a lot and being around family a lot and next thing you know you know its pretty much you know once we started going to get i was pretty was there were another house and they were 2 years old i was pretty much stay in there because my mom was on drugs she longs she knew i was there she really didnt have a problem with it but i kind of started you know liveness there were more get out a very young age. By the time i was 1617. 00 i was fully engulfed in the drug game and it is only was so big it was only 7. 5 square miles so a lot of rumors a stylist britain along to the train detectives back then they had to take to that one high school and they kind of got to know me very well and on i guess they relayed that information to the trip narcotics and they started watching me and follow me around or stuff like that then i remember the 1st time that they that they raided my house i wasnt there but my mother was there and i was i think i just turned 17. And they locked her up and i got a phone call saying that you know your mother was locked up and they want you to turn yourself in. So i visually i turned myself in a 17 a let my mother go and i 1st time you ever going to joe i went to you found because i was. I was always. Still in high school and we missed the part. When i got out i remember the detective telling me that you know soon as i turned 18 and it was going to come back. And if i didnt straight up my life that 1st spears would be none compared to other experiences in jail because then i would be over 18 and i would be going to a dull facility. Most historians look at the origin of the war on drugs as something of president nixon with his speeches and his creation of of the d. N. A. And other agencies in the 1970 s. But the reward drugs as we understand it with. Enormous enormous case loads and and in and filled up prison population is really a feature of the 1980 s. Under president reagan drugs are menacing our society theyre threatening our values and undercutting our institutions theyre killing our children under reagan there was a tremendous increase in federal spending for anti drug activity cabinet level efforts and Congress Creating brain powerful new laws on day 2 of a new campaign against drugs the president backed up a tough talk with action for getting tough on drugs and we mean business its almost like overnight we had discrete idea what we go after the users. And thats what we did we started going after the users in a prison populations who are. Obviously are far more users than are operations major operations in. We started treating sick people people who were addicted to drugs when a member talked to my grandmother and having that conversation with her about my wife and how far i had fallen she said to me you know tracy what i always pray for you and im going to pray that you change your life around. Here one of the things that she said to stuck with me was that you know god is going to far in your darkest hour and only there when you realize who you truly your and i heard her but i really didnt hear her. And i left her house that they skip and then it went right back out into the streets. I remember going to new york to cobb then coming back from new york coming down route one coming through union county we had drugs in the car and we had a gun in the car. And i remember being stopped at a lie and get now switching drivers i got round to the passenger side and she took to the pharmacy and not knowing that it was a cop car right behind us so once again i didnt want to go to court i was going to try. I told my laura that you know we just have to try to get all the charges pushed together give me one senses let me go to my time and hopefully straight not my life but i remember pacifically the judge sits in just telling me. No limit to tom losing. And he said tracy you could bring to the 1989 you can begin again in 1980 he said come back before me for the 3rd time in the 3rd time is going to be a chore for you. Mate hard money fashionable again and that halo effect has felt all her to goal if it werent for bakelite there would be no current rally at all. As we speak large organized. On the march to the united. Player coming out. This is a virtual invasion of our country. You know its going to say this. Is you know. This is. The. Direction to would judge to sentence can be done in 2 ways you can see a judge heres a crime and for this crime you can impose a sentence anywhere in this range from probation to some term of years in prison and the other way is to say judge you must impose some minimum number of years or months of imprisonment and go up from there so a mandatory minimum this is a sentence where no matter how minor the role of the offender no matter how insignificant a violation of this crime it is a minimum term must be imposed mandatory minimum sentences are not new theyve been on the books in this country for 200 years and there are about 190. 00 of them or something and if you look at them they read like the crimes as you are so you can see what the public was concerned about and then Congress Took that concern and translated it into. Law intellect sensing legislation so piracy on the high seas in like 790 s. You life without parole robbing banks and crossing state lines in 1934 was you know 10 years in prison skyjacking in the seventys for as 10 or 20 years in prison and so you can see the you know what was the point the headlines were the headlines were translated into a mandatory sentence and so in the eightys when drugs became a big deal and lots of concern about drugs it was in the top 3 of public concern congress reacted by creating new mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes what congress sent to president bush was 5 years me to the minimum 5 grams of crack cocaine grams like this we. Can years minimum is 50 grand of crack cocaine thats like the weight of a kid or these are tiny quantities its all based on one factor your sense you know how what was a drug and how much of it did you have and that determines your sentence so culpability no longer really plays a major role in a persons a person sentence when the crime carries a mandatory minimum when president reagan signed the mandatory minimums and 96 the federal prison population was 36000. Now its well over 200. 00 pounds this is a growth that no one could have imagined mass incarceration in the u. S. Is really unique in Human History there is no democratic nation thats ever tried to have such a massive social experiment as weve done in incarceration and we have more prisoners than any other country in the window for. Numbers i mean i find it a bit disturbing that we have more prisoners from china and they have a 1000000000 more people than we do i dont think it gives people an eye when they hear that we have 25 percent of the worlds prison population and only 5 percent of the worlds population in other words we are way over in. Compared to any other country in the world. I had allowed. Somebody is a story here a mine and the police found it and they came after me i ended up literally holding the bag. I knew nothing about the criminal Justice System and here i was this middle class. Career never even a parking ticket and it was quite a surprise when we went to court and i had that kind of time marijuana. And i was charged with possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute money going to conspiracy to murder i received a total of 55 Year Prison Sentence the judge suspended all but 6 i was fortunate enough. To make the 1st parole and i actually served in prison 14 months. Is the cards that weve put in with the messages and asked the families to respond so weve gotten some really good responses and this one was 3 fam up 3 members of the family viewed it. And we ask what were the ages of the children who saw it she put just want to put 6. She says extremely meaningful for the daughter of a mother who is incarcerated she loved it. We all did. And this one said what did the message mean to your family to know their family was ok and its a huge part of these children who want to know that their families i mean their mom or dad so ok. Theres. Been 3 years since either of you see. Mr jones looms very relieved for sure is that you dont. Free. Doesnt your fault just very good love the joss stone you want us in the family love done show me for go to the fold has been me. The role of a lot of this town these last 3 or 4 years going to the last. Swan to say the. Very 1st. They said just me to one year administrative segregation and administrative segregation is 23 hour long going to the locked up 23 hours each day you come out for half hour shower and a half hour wreck i know a bit of olive person. At that time i was treated like one of the worst phone persons in the world i remember going into that cell i believe maybe if i buy a cell. I was dead or close i knew i was going to be there for the next year is just an experience that it is going to make your break you are going to come out a better person are you going to come out of worship person than you were before you went to. Being in a hole is mirrors the no i wouldnt wish on anybody. What you locked up for 23 hours i think you can do it. My words my grandmother just kept playing over and over again in my mind and those words was the guy i was going to farm in my darkest hour you know what i realize who are actually was and when i kept hearing that because saying i am at my door now i am at my lowest point. And. I think right there i realized i had reached my lowest point to life and that the only on the way for me to go from here. Another crime another criminal in a country that. Already fed up with both really was right politician for the solution is simple crackdown the reason the criminal Justice System isnt working is that were not sending enough people in jail and keeping there long enough that people are saying general way that they will lock these rushed over and keep them there for a long time through the 1980 s. There was a major shift in the congress and in state legislatures a doubt how long sentences should be the public was a long term by increasing rates of crime from the 1970 s. And early eightys and they wanted longer sentences they wanted cracking down and thats what happened across the board for all kinds of crimes not only the mandatory minimum drug sentences effective all those sensing laws was not just to increase the sentences that people were exposed to so the people were serving longer time in prison than they did before it was also to take the discretion away from the sentencing discretion away from judges and juries and shifted over to prosecutors it didnt limit it discretion it just gave prosecutors. The power to determine what your sentence was going to be by making charging decisions and even by bargaining over what the facts of your case were. So it didnt mean that discretion it was eliminated from the system it just put the prosecutors in charge. Amy it was born in 1968 and she was very very shy about attach that in High School People can sat it in or she played basketball she made good grades high school that we went to a 712 grade i was kind of the little tagalong sister and me and my brother were friends and i mean my sister were friends just kind of watch sure she was. Always really friendly always showing nice this is a small town. Everybody knows everybody. But she got in trouble wed know about it. I had what i consider an idyllic childhood and some point when im in college i mean guy that works for southwest times record the newspaper there in fort smith arkansas and he asked me if i would be a subject for him to go out and take some modeling photos we went to like several locations and he instilled in me that i really ought to pursue a modeling career consider my mother says to me ralston live to dallas my gosh no you know. What shes thinking whats she going to do and so i think shes going to model so i created a little portfolio before i went to dallas that i could show to the modeling agencies fandy it was well read well traveled well educated graduated Stanford Law School i had gone to princeton Theology School so it was it was very appealing to be around somebody who i was frankly very impressed with and so fascinated with and 8 months later we were getting married at the dallas arboretum and all of our family and friends were there and it was at that point seemed like a dream come true. There were red flags before we got married there were there were frankly there were red flags all along the way sandy has what i consider to be a dual personality and that this other character would emerge whenever i dont literally had to do something radical. The only remedy to remove him from my life was for me to leave dallas i had to leave dallas and id leave all my friends behind and completely. Move to a different city. Sandy. That he wouldnt leave her i just kept saying you know lets be friends lets be friends he wanted to be more so cute told me that he. I was going to and then i never heard anything for a while though word got back to me that hed been arrested. I hadnt been in dallas in over a year so of the only thing i knew to do was to book a flight to dallas to see if i could go through the house listen to the answering machine and try to piece this thing together and eventually think youre going to find out more information and while i was in the dallas house the phone rang and it was sandys german Legal Counsel who had been assigned to the case in germany and at that time he. Gave me very thin details but said that sandy had been arrested for manufacturing ecstasy and that he wanted to retain an attorney for him there in dallas it was a pretty interesting revelation but i did there was money in the safe that was in the house in dallas and i took that money and i retained an attorney to go over and meet with him in germany. 7 months after sandy has been arrested and i pull into the garage of my car is rushed by Law Enforcement people who are screaming and have a gun out and theyre pointing at my face im being told you know youre in hot water we know that your husband was arrested we know you know we know you visited him in germany and they said we know you have information and all you have to do is just tell us what you know and i wasnt going to say anything because im literally watching these people destroying my moms isnt somebody that i really want to confide in so i add it wasnt very long after that that my lawyer explained to me exactly what it is that my prosecutor wanted they wanted her to wear a wire. And try to employ a people people she didnt even know and. She was. She refused to do it she said. Im not going to do this and this prosecutor says. A lot. Of. Us china talks are back on track but a 2nd front has opened up europe trade is heading into a storm is again in the center of the debate and also the circus has come to town and its called the democratic process. A. Little. Slow to. Load. A little. Little. Please. Play. A. Little. Thank you. Very well might continue watching us until last. Is this is a sticker from the water bottle phone in the stomach of the fish the brand is part of the Cocacola Company which sells millions of bottles of soda every day the idea was that lets tell consumers there are the bad ones there the litter bugs are trying this way industry shouldnt be blamed for all this waste the company has long promised to reuse the plastic. Soon. As soon as school sets their plastic course the only and only stay when you a special projects funded me. On i knew that that is the end of it for the city but for now the mountains of waste only grow higher. Yet. Donald trump calls his meeting with kim jong un in north korea a great honor but is accused of squandering american influence. Hong kong Police Used Tear Gas as protesters and the occupation of parliament it comes as the terror marks the 22nd out of us 3 of its hondo from britain to china. And the e. U. Commission is in doubt as its chief song called delays the block summit with member state leaders divided as the who should get the news. Jobs. And just now i will bring you the latest news update so dont go far right now in our National Crosstalk and if youre in the you can island running gating is up next