In l. A. And have looked at various integration programs. Valerie i am learning a great deal. I am learning about the disparities in our system and how much in need of reform our criminal system is. I am also learning about the incredible resilience of the human spirit and people who have the deck stacked against them from the day they are born who are fighting back and try to get their lives back on track. I am so deeply moved by the girls in this detention center, many of whom have been abused by their parents from the time they were Young Children and cast doubt on the street and got into the inevitable trouble and telling me what their hopes and dreams are. One wanted to be a physician. Another wants to be a dramatic traumatic counselor for people who love been through trauma. These people continue to dream. And society and their families by every measure have let them down. I was in new york visiting reentry program. A food truck operator has hired people as they leave prison to drive the food truck and take care of the food Service Inside of the truck and market themselves by driving around new york. Another one was called center for employment opportunity. Both of them work with probation officers to reach people as soon as they are released from prison. Several people told these extraordinary stories of the adversity they faced in prison and when they were released from prison and simple things like if only having the clothes you were wearing when you were incarcerated, they are now 10 years old or not knowing how to use internet to find a job or not having any money at all, no money when you get out of prison and nowhere to live. And the people who help to get you into trouble in the first place are right there waiting for you with a nice low safety net if you want to get back control and just how hard it is to get back on track. The common theme that i found when i was in los angeles and also again yesterday and in newark is children, having children is a great motivator to get your life back on track. Many people shared with me, after they had a kid, they felt they had to get themselves together and a had to be able to provide for the children but could not get a job. James the subject of reintegration has come up again and again today. It has been a longtime since this country has seriously invested in the project. So where do you think the money is going to come from now . If there are 600,000 people year now being released back into the community . Valerie first of all, just some statistics. We have 5 of the worlds population yet we have 25 of the worlds prisoners. We spend 80 million on our juvenile Justice System, prison system not juvenile, the penal system. 80 billion is a good start. Just imagine if we had some of that money available for reentry. The president gave a terrific speech at the naacp earlier this summer. He talked about three pillars. One, the community. What can we do with Early Childhood education to ensure that our children stay in school and we can break the schooltoprison pipeline . And there is reason to be optimistic now. We can talk about that now in terms of legislation so the penalty action he fits the crime and these mandatory minimums are adjusted and there is some flexibility. And what do we do the day people get into prison to start preparing them for when they are released, so when they are released, they can hit the ground running . So we focus on those three players. It will save us money in the long term. We will have people reintegrated into society. Working, taking care of their families, being productive members of society, which many of them want to be. James how optimistic are you that there can be meaningful reform with this congress . Valerie i like the way you said that. With this congress. Kind of a leading question. I will try you, i feel optimistic. That is not a word i have used a lot in the last seven years when it comes to congress. But we have a lot of support in the house and the senate. The senate has already developed a bill for sentence reform. We have a Great Coalition of stakeholders on the outside who are creating the motivation for congress to move forward. So that is everybody from, you know, cory booker and van jones to Coke Industries and more conservative members of the house and senate Koch Industries and more conservative members of the house and senate. James what explains a coalition . What is the politics are now, particularly on the republican side . Valerie the president had a great meeting several months ago with members of both files of both houses. I expected the republicans to vote on the fiscal part of this. But they too were talking about redemption. And we have a responsibility to reunite people with their families. The themes were remarkably the same on both sides of the aisle. James that represents a kind of sea change. Valerie crime rates were going up and people didnt know what to do so it was kind of an era of get tough on crime without thinking of the social and financial repercussions. I have heard from judges that these mandatory minimums are frustrating. They look at individual cases and say my hands should not be tied. This person needs drug treatment. This person Needs Mental Health counseling. This person needs a whole range of services that would allow them to get back on track as opposed to being incarcerated. And the recidivism rate is so high. When you start to visit people who are either in person rated or recently released, you begin to understand why. We still have a lot of hard work to do. But if we can avoid putting them in that pipeline in the first place, that is the best solution. James so what is the emerging consensus. What would meaningful reform look like . Valerie you want to start with nonviolent drug offenders. I think everybody can agree that our system is too harsh. And lets figure out where we can give some folks ability of flexibility of the sentencing. I should back up to say that the president has begun laying the foundation. Since he took office, he selected eric holder as attorney general he knew that he shared his dedication to Justice Reform. Holder said dont always ask for the maximum. You have prosecutorial discretion. That is reducing the disparity between cocaine and crack. It is another way of try to level our system. Since day one, we have been trying to change the system. We had a reentry counsel and we talked about all of the different federal agencies that touch reentry. So a lot of the pillars that we are seeing now were laid since the beginning. James i was really struck by several things the president said in his speech last week in newark. One of the things he said in passing, even he at times is despaired by the magnitude of this problem. Listening to you talk to nonviolent offenders, one of the many mind blowing statistics about our system is, as i understand it, even if we let all the prisoners in the federal penitentiary out, we still have the highest rate of incarceration in the world because the state system is so huge and that will be affected by reform at the federal level. Is this going to be a years long process . How do you influence what is happening in the states . Valerie we lead by example. If we can change federal legislation, i dont see how we cant mirror that at the states. You are right. But already we are beginning to see states pass reform and recognize the financial burden and the terrible toll on society. I think we have momentum going on in the states as well as momentum going on in washington. And we have to go down parallel tracks and we have to learn from each other. We have to see best practices at work. James one of the warnings we have heard from the states from the stage today, if we begin reducing the prison population, we will see crime rising again. And we are already seeing that happening in some cities. The boom in the heroin trade in some cities and Crime Associated with it. Do you think this is a real risk that we are seeing a long pendulum swing and a long arc and a swing and consensus and bipartisan support will fragment and we wont be able to make some progress . Valerie we are seeing crime going up in some cities and seeing it level in others and going down in the third category. I would hasten to add that the attorney general has been instructed by the president to be vigilant and go out in the cities where we are seeing crime go up, meet with the mayors and Police Chiefs of those cities, figure out what we can do using best practices to bring crime down. The reason why we have so much support from Law Enforcement on criminal Justice Reform, the president was talking to the association of chiefs of police in chicago and they supported. They believe, if we have meaningful reform, it will make our streets safer. If you keep people from going to prison in the first place of a dont get caught up in that system and they are getting employed and they have ways of taking care of their family, that brings crime down. So i think we have, all of the stakeholders, firmly engaged in this process to keep neighborhoods safer and allowing people to lead productive lives. James one more question for you and then i will have to let you go. You guys have a year left now. Valerie yes. James i saw that smile. Valerie i wasnt smiling because i have a year left. I was anticipating the question. [laughter] james on this particular issue, what do you think the president wants his mark to be and how and engaged on a do you expect him to be in the postpresidency . Valerie the answer to the first question, even if we only have one year left, the second half of the fourth quarter, but really big things happen it the end of the game. Look at this last year. We have had a terrific year. If you recall, not that long ago, the press was calling the president lameduck. It doesnt feel much like lameduck to me. He has decided that building on the momentum since day one, that he wants to focus on criminal Justice Reform with large. The community, the system itself, beginning with the announcement he made last week that come at the federal level, he has a than the box for federal employees and contractors. There is a lot we can do with federal legislation, state legislation, and our efforts are come out of the 21st Century Police report that was your to the president , building relationship with the police and the communities that they are there to serve and protect. I think we have an enormous amount of momentum and everybody in this room can help. Viewed in isolation. It is a problem that touches all of us. Whatever he does postpresidency will be consistent with those values and the vision that he has for america. James valerie jarrett. Thank you. Valerie thank you. [applause] washington cspans journal, we look at the major Security Threat facing the u. S. Terrorism and Cyber Security and relations with iraq, iran, syria, and north korea. We will also look back at the top Energy Related topics of 2015. You can join the conversation by calling in or on facebook or twitter. Washington journal starts live at 7 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan. The council on Foreign Relations recently held a discussion on the dangers that journalists face. This features Sebastian Junger and lara logan. My daughter asked me if she could come with me. She is five. Mommy, can i come with you . Sweetheart, no, im working. Eventually, i said, well, it is not safe for little kids. There are some bad guys there. It is not a safe place for children to go. She said, then, why are you going . I said, because there are always good guys. Everywhere there are bad guys, there are also good guys. Im going to be with the good guys. She said, if you dont come back, that means the bad guys got you. And i said, im coming back. Your mommy always comes back. Not just going to war. You try looking at your fiveyearold and sixyearold when you are sterilizing every single piece of clothing with you and putting it into clothinh you and putting it into waterproof containers. Liberia had one of the most regal civil wars most brutal civil wars in history. Liberians told me over and over that ebola is worse than war, because it is a silent killer. I was teasing sebastian. He was at a high school while we were in afghanistan. He is at waterproof containers. Liberia had one of the most brutal civil wars in history. Liberians told me over and over that ebola is worse than war, because it is a silent killer. These things are very difficult. I was teasing sebastian. He was at a high school while we were in afghanistan. He is at that point that sebastian was at 10 years ago. Saying i would have made a different decision at 30. Its a very hard thing to do, but i feel like it is part of my dna. The first time that i really was a little deranged by drama was in 2000. I have been in northern afghanistan. The taliban at that point had an air force, tanks, artillery. We really got pretty pounded sometimes. We saw some pretty ugly things. This was before 9 11. The country was at war. No one was really talking about ptsd. I had no idea what it was. It never occurred to me you could be traumatized in any kind of enduring way. I came from afghanistan, and im not particularly neurotic person. I was puzzled when i had panic attacks in situations that wouldnt normally scare me, like the new york city subway in rush hour. I had these fullblown panic attacks, and i didnt understand. I was panicking in small places, small, crowded places. And i was just sure very strange feeling. Everything i was looking at seemed like a threat. The crowd of people was somehow going to turn and attacked me. The trains were going to fast and they were going to jump the rails and somehow plow into the people on the subway platform and kill everybody. You can see the rest of that discussion from the council on Foreign Relations tomorrow night at 8 00 eastern on cspan. Up, cspanwraps presents congress, the gear in review. Join us thursday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern as we revisit which mcconnell taking his position as Senate Majority leader, pope francis is historic address to the joint session of congress. The resignation of john boehner and the election of paul ryan. The debate over the nuclear deal with iran and the reaction from congress on Mass Shootings here and abroad. Gun control and the rise of isis. A year in review on cspan. This new years weekend, both tv brings you three days of nonfiction, books and authors. On new years day, encore presentations. Nationally syndicated talkshow host about his life and career and his response to viewer calls and questions. His many books include the theh of 2016, rebooting american dream, and threshold. At 10 00 p. M. , economist Walter Williams and his most recent book, america and its contempt for liberty. Saturday evening at 10 00 eastern, cap harel rhodes williamodes, looks at mckinley in his new book, why the election of 1896 still matters. Gridlock anditical mckinleys expansion of the republican base. The eviewed by magazine. Grover cleveland has come into office. Mckinley has been governor of ohio and seen the country descend into a deep depression and republicans think that the election of 1896 is going to be there. He once to be the nominee but he is not the frontrunner. Directly directly afterwards, we attend a book party thrown for karl rove. Sunday, the author will be live for your calls coming emails, and text. A detroit story. A biography of bill clinton. Newt to shut up. Three days of nonfiction books and authors on cspan2. Television for serious readers. More now on the criminal Justice System and a discussion from the federalist society. Speakers include a civil rights attorney, a former Philadelphia Police officer. Y will talk about events this is two hours. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is gail harriet and i am the chairman of the civil rights practice group. Welcome to our breakout session where we intend to provide you with a safe space. [laughter] [applause] a safe space for a serious, no holds barred, intellectual discussion of an important policy question. Todays session is entitled ferguson, baltimore, and criminal Justice Reform. We have great panelists who will be introduced by our moderator. Me to simply to introduce that allow me to simply introduce that moderator, the honorable david stras. You might think this former Clarence Thomas clerk, this former law professor from the university of minnesota looks a little young to be a fiveyear veteran of the Minnesota Supreme Court. Ladies and gentlemen, that is because he was sworn in at the ripe old age of 35. [applause] Justice Stras thank you for that kind introduction. As you heard, my name is david stras and im currently a member of the Minnesota Supreme Court and i taught among other classes, criminal law to firstyear law students. This is a longtime interest of mine. I have been asked to moderate the panel which is timely in light of recent developments. The Current Administration is pushing a criminal Justice Reform agenda that includes greater Cooperation AmongLaw Enforcement agencies, reforms related to Substance Abuse and changes in community policing. As you heard last night at the dinner from the panel of governors, criminal Justice Reform is an important issue at the state level. There seems to be a timely debate going on about whether criminal Justice Reforms are better implemented at the state level and local level or whether a topdown approach is needed. Our panelists are experts in the field of Law Enforcement and community relation, crime policy and recent developments in the criminal justice field. We intend to cover what type of reform, if any, is needed and what should it look like . We will also recover the empirical interest on policing and we hope to address the most effective methods of policing, how they can be promoted, and whether the threat of personal reliability is the best way to promote good enforcement. Now we begin with a leading expert on the four evaluating the effectiveness of social programs in the Heritage Foundation center. He has testified frequently on the efen