President Obama is the first USA sitting president to tour a USA prison.
Because, we can’t hear our President speak enough about his visit to this prison, his meeting with the six inmates, and what he’s done to roll back those ridiculous sentences for non-violent drug offenses.
THANK YOU, MR. PRESIDENT!
@POTUS touring FCI-El Reno. First time a sitting President has been inside a federal prison @kfor #ObamaInOK pic.twitter.com/gHorjZex1Z
— Steve Johnson (@stevejkfor) July 16, 2015
https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/622019488653905920
There is a heartbreaking photo of Sandra’s family in this article on their news conference today:
“Family questions death of Sandra Bland in Texas jail”
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-sandra-bland-texas-jail-death-met-0717-20150717-story.html#page=1
It’s called EMPATY, COMPASSION, and it is SORELY lacking in so many elected officials. But this is an indication of the folks who elected PBO not once, but twice. WE.KNOW. And we’ve got your back, Mr. President.
The look on this President’s face today. I sometimes think that my respect for this President cannot grow, but it does. Looking at his face. Him being in that prison. I can’t even put into words how moved I am that he went, and it’s not just because he went, but it is. Because, he went to where so many are forgotten about in our society. A prison industrial complex that has torn an abyss through the community. And, to know that my President understands ALL OF THAT.
I feel the same way, I have immense respect for PBO’s decision to take on mass incarceration. He knows that the time is right and that he can forge a new direction that cannot easily be reversed by the next administration whether it is Democratic or Republican.
Bill Clinton: mass incarceration on my watch ‘put too many people in prison’
Former president highlights US’s unparalleled rate of imprisonment and admits changes in policy during his two terms ‘overshot the mark’
Ed Pilkington in New York
Tuesday 28 April 2015 13.25 EDT
Former US president Bill Clinton has called for an end to mass incarceration, admitting that changes in penal policy that happened largely under his watch put “too many people in prison and for too long” and “overshot the mark”.
As tension remains high in Baltimore and other cities across the country over police brutality, Clinton on Tuesday highlighted the related blight that has struck many urban communities as a result of America’s unparalleled rate of imprisonment. More than 2 million people are still held in captivity in prisons and jails, giving the country 25% of the world’s prison numbers despite having only 5% of its overall population.
During Clinton’s eight years in the White House the incarceration figures saw some of their steepest rises in modern times. Though the numbers had already begun to shoot up under Ronald Reagan’s vaunted war on drugs in the 1980s, Clinton further inflated them.
When he won his first presidential election in 1992 there were 847,000 people in prison. By the time he ended his second term in 2000 that population had grown to 1,334,000.
In 1994 Clinton championed a crime bill that laid down several of the foundations of the country’s current mass incarceration malaise. Vowing to be “tough on crime” – a quality that had previously been more closely associated with the Republicans and which Clinton adopted under his “triangulation” ploy – he created incentives to individual states to build more prisons, to put more people behind bars and to keep them there for longer. His also presided over the introduction of a federal three-strikes law that brought in long sentences for habitual offenders.
Under “truth in sentencing”, states which sentenced people to long terms in prison with no chance of parole were rewarded with increased federal funds. The crime bill also enshrined a Clinton program known as COPS – Community Oriented Policing Services – in which federal money was provided to states to allow them vastly to increase the number of police officers on the streets – in turn generating more arrests and more convictions.
In a foreword to a new book of essays compiled by the Brennan Center for Justice, Clinton stops short of giving a full mea culpa for the vast increase in prison numbers. He writes that by 1994 crime had become a major problem across the country and that “we acted to address a genuine national crisis”.
But he goes on to say that “it’s time to take a clear-eyed look at what worked, what didn’t, and what produced unintended, long-lasting consequences … Too many laws were overly broad instead of appropriately tailored. Some are in prison who shouldn’t be, others are in for too long, and without a plan to educate, train, and reintegrate them into our communities, we all suffer.”
…
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/28/bill-clinton-calls-for-end-mass-incarceration
Yeah, Bill Clinton, many people had their lives stolen and ruined because you had to become a de facto Republican in 1994 to avoid becoming a one term president.
Why in the blazing hell don’t these Clintons just go away? Why would anyone vote for them in 2016? Or any other year? Proud to say I’ve never voted for a Clinton. I had to throw away two presidential votes, but I never voted for Bill Clinton.
Bubba’s hoping to get ahead of this fact, before 2016. It’s much to late, Bill. We have very LONG memories. DODT, DOMA and the Three-strikes law, were enacted all under your adminsitration.
He would not have said SHYT if Hillary wasn’t running. We’re on our THIRD generation of Young Black Men as fodder for the Prison Industrial Complex, and we’re supposed to accept a ‘ my bad’ from him?
PHUCK THAT.
Clinton: “we acted to address a genuine national crisis”
“National crisis? Please, the GOP considered your receiving a BLOW JOB in the Oval office a NATIONAL CRISIS.