The war on coal by this Administration has been devastating to communities across the West, the Midwest, and Appalachia.

I think that you underestimate the cost, you overestimate the benefits and that the cost to these communities of people being out of work is very high.

Is that the philosophy you see coming out of this Administration?

The ability that we have to implement policies and have agreement on those policies with rules to follow later has been essential for us to act swiftly.

If you are for natural gas development, do you think that we have to change something in the law then, to prevent these groups from blocking construction and development of natural gas?

Just watched the president's comments on Syria, nonsensical and completely out of touch with the realities on the ground.

So let us look at the numbers.

I have read stories about federal inmates and inmates at State facilities in isolation who have clearly reached a point where they are self-destructive.

Do you believe that isolation, 23-hour isolation, has a negative impact on the mental health of an individual?

Today in the United States, more than 2.3 million people are imprisoned.

There are prisoners who are in solitary confinement for decades in this country.

Increasing the use of high-security segregation is counterproductive, often causing violence inside facilities and contributing to recidivism after release.

We also have an obligation to look in the mirror, to look at our own human rights record.

I would like to call the second panel. I want to ask consent that Senator Leahy's statement be placed in the record.

Some States are--we are going to hear from Commissioner Epps of Mississippi. Some States, like Mississippi, Ohio, and Maine, are undergoing significant reforms in their prison systems and reducing or eliminating the use of supermax…

We put far too many people inside solitary confinement, people who should be categorically excluded.

We have a greater responsibility. As a profession, as a people, we should know what happens after the prisoner is taken away.

So we kind of look at the prison overcrowding and putting two people in that kind of space is making the situation much worse.