Political Quotes

“Well, it doesn't matter which bill moves. The question is whatever moves ought to have the elements of prevention and early intervention, ought to have diversion, and if you only deal with sentencing in the Federal system, you are not dealing with mass incarceration in the United States. The Federal system only has 10 percent of the prisoners. So if you just eliminated the Federal system, you are only talking about 10 percent reduction in incarceration. You have to do something about mass incarceration at the State level. {time} 2015 So when you just talk about sentencing reform, if you reduce a mandatory minimum for 25 to 15 years, the first 15 years, that has no effect, because they will serve the first 15 years, then gradually you will have an effect. If you want an effect, you need to have prevention programs so fewer people are coming into prison, diversion programs so those who are arrested can be diverted from prison, dealt with effectively in drug court so they are much less likely to commit a crime again so that you can reduce crime and save money. You have to make sure you have meaningful mandatory minimum reforms because that is one of the major drivers of the overincarceration. When people are in prison, you have to make sure you have the funding for the programs to make sure they don't come back. And once in the community, the second chance programs that have been very effective need to be funded. We know what to do; it is just a matter of getting it done.…”