Right and the defense marriage act and the decision not to defend it in court. And he talked about restoring civil right and the vote to exfelons. This is 20 minutes. Our next guest is a special guest and we appreciate having him here as we always do. I commend general holder for his willingness to speak to us candidly and openly every year. The fact that our parting gift is going to be a baseball cap speaks to how many times you have been here because all of the gifts we give out have already been given to you. We will give you something you might be able to use. But we have all familiar with general holder. He was sworn in as the 82 attorney general on february 3rd 2009. He was named to be the Deputy Attorney general in 1997 and served as the United States attorney for the district of columbia. He was nominated to be an associate judge for the district of columbia. He was a litigation partner at covington in washington. It is a pleasure to have you to here address us. General . [ app
[inaudible conversations] this airing of the subcommittee will resume. It would have been ten minutes except the senate train broke down. [laughter] we had to walk over the capital. Please proceed. Good afternoon, mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, members of the committee. Thank you for revisiting this pressing issue. Changing the culture in the prisons will change the culture and our cities and states. The disproportionate and arbitrary use of solitary confinement is not only immoral but they missed the opportunity to break the cycle of crime. This approach doesnt increase Public Safety and is contrary did justice goals were the criminal Justice System, accountability and restoration. Teaching people to become good citizens red and just give prisoners is a charge entrusted to the Correctional Officers by the taxpayers. Skilled whartons understand that in sharing prisoners become responsible and productive members of society at large is paramount to the safety of our communities whether in
Director of external affairs, and he served in the Mission House of representatives elected speaker, lives in michigan with his wife, stacy, and three young daughters, and i thank you and justice fellowship for your appearance here today. Mark levin, at the texas Public Policy foundation, playing an Important Role in adult and justice reforms, and the state, the leader of the Public Policy foundation, right on crime initiative, led conservative efforts to reform the criminal Justice System. He was law clerk to judge will garwood on the fifth circuit and staff attorney at the texas supreme court. Thanks to the texas Public Policy foundations work led to reforms of the drug sentencing law and in particular, i thank you for your support for the sentencing act, which all members here today have cosponsored. Damon, a witness before us, in late september, he was missions 141st death row inmate to be exonerated on actual innocence grounds since the spring court reinstated Capital Punishment s
For some reason we seem to think that for admin seg, someone will sell 23 hours a day. Who defines that . Its probably some court case that mandates that and why isnt it 20 hours a day or 18 hours a day. They work their way down to 10. Thats one thing we will be doing. Its been automatic that someone on death row will stay in administrative segregation until they are put to death. Some are found innocent and released and we will change our policy on that and giving them the opportunity to get outside of yourself. Where we will end up is a small handful of all that we are talking about. For those in administrative segregation, that doesnt mean we give up on them, but i sat there for over 20 hours. This was no way to treat an american. No way they should be treating someone like this and internationally its not a way to be treating someone. This is receiving the right amount of tension at the right time and its time to move this forward. Thank you. Thanks. I might say to those gathered h
I might ask anybody in this audience to stand up if they feel like they would like to live next to someone thats been released directly from segregation into the street and im pretty sure people are going to stay in their chairs. What we were able to do, in 2012 we released 140 directly into the street. In 2014 we released two so far. And the other area i was challenged by the governor was take a look at everyone else in administrative segregation and see if you can determine the numbers of those that should be released. Weve done that. That was started by the executive director and continued by me. In january of 2011, we had 1,451 in admin seg, as its called. In january of 2014, we had 597. In a sense i dont feel im replacing mr. Clements. I feel im fulfilling his vision. Thats what were doing in colorado. I believe that nobody should be released directly to the community. And some of the things that were doing are some that all can be doing. I dont disagree with anything mr. Samuels