here in florida. and this is a controversial intake facility for housing immigrant children, and the only of its kind, and the only one of its kind run by a for-profit corporation which is in itself very controversial, and elizabeth warren is discussing the topic and handling of these centers. last friday, i drafted a plan to end the private incarceration of our children in the facilities like this. and part of the reason is because this is wrong. i would end all private incarceration systems. locking people up for money is not what the united states of america should do. and joining me now is al c cardenas and former adviser to jeb bush, and also, a joining us is a lecture from the university of austin, and thank you, both.
just in the last couple minutes senator elizabeth warren went to homestead and she shared a very emotional moment that we re looking at there with a crying girl. she told her that the character of our nation is not the character of the president. and she spoke about her plan to handle centers like this. last friday i put out a plan to end the private incarceration of our children in facilities like this. whew! and part of the reason is because this is wrong. i would end all private incarceration systems. locking people up for money is not what the united states of america should do. dan, you know the voters in this all important state. how does this shape who you expect to hear later tonight and tomorrow night? well, i think that it s going tend to up taking over the debate tonight specifically because of the proximity to the debate and the proximity of when this was rals rlsed.
shallot. appreciate you being here. first to you, in a sense, do we have a problem in the american prison system in our incarceration systems. is the crime rate down proving that what we ve been doing works? we have over 200,000 federal prisoners. that s outrageous. so many of them are young people unfortunately many of them people of color that are in jail for draconian sentences for possession of small amounts of narcotics. these mandatory minimum sentences tie judge s hands and these young people primarily get locked away for 10 20 years, sometimes life in prison for a one-time mistake in their early life. it s got to be changed. truly a scandal in terms of human pain what these people are going through in terms of lengthy jail sentences. doug is there a way to change it and still keep the streets safe? it s a difficult issue. i don t disagree with jim at all. in 1970 we had 300,000 people in