Political Quotes

“I want to spend a few minutes discussing a major crisis in this country that must be addressed. Tragically, in the United States of America we now have 2.2 million people in jail. We have more people incarcerated than any other country on Earth, including China, which is a Communist authoritarian country four times our size. We have more people in jail than does China. Further, at a time of large deficits and a very large national debt, we are spending about $80 billion a year in Federal, State, and local taxpayer money to lock up people--$80 billion a year to incarcerate people. Our criminal justice system is broken, and we need major reforms in that system. I think there is no debate in this country that violent and dangerous people must be locked up and they must be kept in jail and away from society. I think nobody argues that. On the other hand, I hope there is also no debate that nonviolent people--people who have been convicted of relatively minor crimes--should not have their lives destroyed while they do time in prison and create an arrest record which will stay with them for their entire lives. The important point is, it is not just the year or 2 years somebody is in prison; this record will stay with them for their entire lives and do enormous damage to their lives. In 2014 there were 620,000 marijuana possession arrests. That is one arrest every minute.…”