Federal prison serving mandatory minimum sentences for a drug crime, 55,000. Thats more than 50 of all federal drug offenders and more than one quarter of all federal prisoners. Many of those serving are lowlevel offenders and its true that some lowlevel offenders like couriers dont receive mandatory minimum but others are frequently sentenced to so what is your response to the claim that this is much ado about something to that were not going address or potentially address a large sector of the federal prison population . I think that we absolutely will. If you look statistically at the profile of drug defendants currently in the bureau of prisons right now, youll see that there are a number of low level nonviolent drug defendants. For example, less than 1 of the defendants in federal prison actually had violence or threatsover violence in connection with their drug offense. Only 16 of them had a weapon. Half of them had little or no criminal history at all and only 7 of them are lead
I would point out that in a number of these states, for example, georgia North Carolina experienced after the implementation of their Reentry Program something modelled after the corrections act, they saw a 19. 3 reduction in recidivism. Other states, 10 in georgia, 9. 4 , right right. I think rather than take this as a matter of faith or perhaps expressing our hopes and best wishes, we actually have some real results we can point to that demonstrate the workability of some of these programs. I dont think theres as much disagreement as it may look at first. For the people who will revus to avail themselves of the opportunity to get an education, deal with their drug and alcohol problem and the like, incarceration undoubtedly works. But for those people who will come out, it strikes me as just common sense to try to help equip them so they can cope with a productive life as opposed to being in the turnstyle and going back and forth. I appreciate the important contribution that your orga
Senatorgrassley whitehouse. Whitehouse let me thank you for your chairmanship of this process. You brought very distinctive use of your own, and youve facilitated all of us coming together in making this happen. I also want to mention, although he is not here today, the graham brought Magic Springs is a military prosecutor. Thanks to both of them. The department of justice as we work through complicated issues. Anator feinstein asked question about making sure when , the unitedas made states attorneys would not let the balls fall through the cracks and ignore the responsibilities. Wewant to make sure that sure her we are very keenly aware that takes place. We are more confident that she is that something would be developed to put into place. I delighted to work with her and with you to make sure that asething that codifies that long as it is not creating unnecessary bureaucracy and delay becomes a part of this bill. We look forward to working with you to nail that last piece down. Areg
Organizations efforts have contributed. I think that helps contribute tremendously to these results that i mentioned earlier. Thank you for your contributions to our efforts. I want to use the remaining time to say, as i travel from houston ustin to senator leo to san antonio to dallas most recently. Whether they are experts in this area or not, they tell me that formerroblems that many inmates have they have problems getting jobs because they have a criminal record. Even if you eliminate the box, employersve proposed, will still get a criminal background check. Whether they put it on their application or not, that will still follow them. If you cant get a job, even if you are trained in the reentry youram, that will limit opportunity and increase the likelihood you will repeat and end up back in prison. Waslast thing that mentioned to me, i hope you can address it, is the difficulty is simply finding a place to live. Many apartments will not rent the premises to someone who has been c
Studio to discuss his latest album, covers of songs from broadway. Theres the goosebump thing when the melody just gets you and you dont know why. Sometimes, its in a genre you didnt think you liked and it just gets you and you just feel the hairs on the back of your neck. I love this song. Sreenivasan all that and more on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Supported by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation. Committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information at macfound. Org and with the ongoing support of these institutions this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Sreenivasan in a moment, judys and gwens headline interviews with Hillary Clinton and bill and melinda gates. But first, the days news, starting with clintons decisi