Political Quotes

“I rise this evening as co-anchor along with my classmate and scholar, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, from the Eighth District of New York, for tonight's Congressional Black Caucus Special Order hour, Equal Justice Under the Law: Criminal Justice Reform and Challenging the School-to-Prison Pipeline. Congressman Jeffries leads by example. He is a member of the Criminal Justice Task Force, and he has a long personal and professional history of being a Brother's Keeper. This evening the Congressional Black Caucus comes to the House floor to discuss the current state of America's criminal justice system and the necessary reform, reform that will allow us to invest in our communities and expand opportunities for all Americans. Mr. Speaker, the school-to-prison pipeline is an epidemic that is plaguing schools across the Nation. Mr. Speaker, the need and appetite to reform our Federal criminal justice system has been building for years, and now it is clear that there is consensus that the time is now to take meaningful action. The school-to-prison pipeline refers to the policies and practices that pushes our Nation's children, especially our most at-risk children, out of the classroom and into the juvenile and criminal justice system. Far too often, students are expended, expelled, or even arrested for minor offenses that lead to visits to the principal's office a thing of the past.…”