welcome back to the cnn presidential debate. we are live from detroit. i want to turn now to criminal justice, mr. vice president. senator booker called your new criminal justice reform plan, quote, an inadequate solution to what is a raging crisis in our country, unquote. why is senator booker wrong? i think he is wrong. i think we should work together. he has a similar plan. we should change the way we look at prisons. when someone is convicted of a drug crime they end up going to jail and to prison. they should be going to rehabilitation. they shouldn t be going to prison. they should be learning to read and write. when they get out of prison, they should be in a situation where they have access to everything they would have had before including pell grants for education, including making sure that they re able to have public housing, including they have all the opportunities that were available to them because we
begin to be the country that says everyone has worth and digni dignity. don t let the republicans divide this party. that s what i said. we are a country of immigrants of all of us. some game against their will. others came because they thought they could fundamentally change their lives and they did. the fact of the matter is, i think the president of the united states barack obama went out of his way to try to change his system. he got bushed pack significantly. so joe biden mixed it up with senator booker over criminal justice reform. the match came after booker called the former vice president s plan inadequate. why is senator booker wrong? i think we should work together. i think he has a similar plan. he s said since the 1970s
country, unquote. why is senator booker wrong? i think he is wrong. i think we should work together. he has a similar plan. we should change the way we look at prisons. right now we re in a situation where when someone is convicted of a drug crime, they end up going to jail and to prison. they should be going to rehabilitation. they shouldn t be going to prison. they should be learning to read and write. and not just sit in there and learn how to be better criminals. when they get out of prison, they should be in a situation where they have access to everything they would have had before including pell grants for education, including making sure that they re able to have public housing, including they have all the opportunities that were available to them because we want them to become better citizens. that s the essence of what my plan lays out. i m happy to discuss it more in detail if the senator wants to. and so i you know, i anyway, that s what i think my plan i know what