which we say that's a very good business move. >> john you have done justice to lego and mr. ai weiwei. head over to al jazeera.com for more news and ray suarez is next for "inside story." r "inside story." ♪ ♪ >> it's the largest one time ever. more than 6,000 people mostly drug offenders, the u.s. sentencing commission with the support of the obama administration, is trying to relieve prison overcrowding and give relief to prison sentences at the end of the drug war. are the communities ready to receive them? in early spring? it's is "inside story."

>> welcome to "inside story." i'm ray suarez. the u.s. sentencing commission has reexamined its glue glieps guidelines for drug crimes and wher rewritten for sentences, either release under the new guidelines. as a group they're part of the world's largest prison population. as individuals, they face serious challenges when they hit the streets again, and need to beat some daunting odds to stay out of trouble. ing al jazeera's ash-har quraishi carries the story. >> with three months of training under his belt, cameron wright is studying advanced manufacturing. >> i want to be active.

i feel like the sky's the limit and you know in this industry from what i've done my research on, it's almost recession proof. >> reporter: but wright will have a tough hurdle to overcome when he' he gets out of prison. he's facing a sentence for one time marijuana use. >> i've nothing to hide. i didn't hurt anybody. i didn't steal anything. i was just trying to pay rent. >> that's the sound we like to hear. the boss likes to hear that sound okay.. >> reporter: this instructor has been teaching advance machinery to inmates for the past year. he says plugging them in has a chance for them to earn a living wage and turn their lives around. >> they have an opportunity to have a career, that's the big word, to have an actual career. and that alone should motivate them to continue and again, make

good money, make a good life for themselves. >> a study conducted between 2005 and 2010 of ex prisoners showed more than two-thirds, 68% were reoffended after two years years. >> when you get a person employed you can drop that recidivism rate significantly. >> an organization that helps form he inmatesesome reenter . >> there are enormous barriers for prisoners to get and keep a job. however most prisoners have very little when they are released. they may not even have a state-issued i.d. and from there they start. >> safer offers everything from mental health services to high school equivalence programs.

the foundation's own data from 2008 to 2011 shows that when an individual gets and stays in a job for 30 days the recidivism rate drops from 38% to 17.5%. cameron wright hopes he's done everything he can to stay on the right track, to stay out of prison. >> coming from where i came from i came the right way, i'm fest on the right path and can i only look up now. >> ash-har quraishi, al jazeera, chicago. >> tonight we're looking at the large release of prisoners from federal prisoners. not for profit news organization covering the criminal justice system. welcome to to the program. i think headlines might be a little deceiving. they're not just throwing open the doors and letting 6,000 people walk out. some of these people are in various stages of being released, aren't they simone. >> that is correct. i spoke with a spokesman from

the bureau muc of prisons yestey and here is what he told me. 6100 individuals leaving federal prison, home confinement meaning they are already home or leaving their halfway house. rest are going to ice custody, meaning facing deportation and roughlroughly 190 will be leavig a community somewhere in the united states. >> so out of that 6112 i think the number is, who's going to still be connected under some form of judicial supervision? >> a majority, actually. according to the bureau of prisons it's not like these people will not be monitored anymore. actually, federal probation parole will have to supervise

them, they'll have to find jobs and be compliant to a curfew, eight, 9:00 p.m. before they have to get home. >> was there bipartisan support for ring examining the formulas for these men and wols? women? >> right. it's a imp in of federal judges, lawyers, those who work for department of justice and by law they have to be a mix of both parties, democrats and republicans. so it happened about 14 months ago there was a vote. these individuals decided to peel back some of the guidelines for those arrested on drug offenses and the owner work began. they began reaching out to probation officers and judges and say let's start selecting individuals who would be okay with early release, who has a

low risk for recidivism. >> this is not being done if i understand correctly willy-nilly sort of putting names and numbers into grid and just letting a bunch of people out. they are looking at individuals who they think are ready to be on the streets again? >> that is correct. and let's not forget about 3300 of these individuals are already on the street whether they are living in a halfway home or they're actually back at home already. so again it's not like the flood gates are opening and a rash of prisoners going onto city streets. it's a very slow moving process. >> is this a rewrite of the federal justice system at all, rejiggering positions of people at the front end of the system? >> they already looked at the system for those convicted of crack cocaine a few years ago. if that bill passes they'll peel back some more federal

sentencing and even peel back confinement. there is work within our judicial system to start peeling back the complexities of mass incarceration. >> is there heft behind these folks getting follow up wrap around services to help them stay on the straight and narrow? >> there's been nonprofits around the country working with this population already. we just did a study with the fortune society in new york which provides housing and social services to men and women leaving state prison. the groundwork was laid a decade ago. those leaving prisons, can we leave that to the nonprofit sector or ask the federal system afford to take care of these people? >> see malone weizen bawen baum, thank you for joining us.

if is the policy undervaluing a social scourge or is it righting a past wrong? what do people getting an early release need to stay out of trouble? an early spring, it's the "inside story." >> bold... >> he took two m-16's, and he crawled... >> brave... >> ...do what you gotta do... >> then betrayed... >> why do you think you didn't get the medal of honor? >> a lifetime without the honor they deserved... >> some say that it was discrimination... >> revealing the long painful fight, to recognize some of america's bravest... >> he say.. be cool...be cool... >> ...proudest moment in my life.. >> honor delayed a soledad o'brien special report only on al jazeera america

>> you're watching "inside story." i'm ray suarez. as the drug war reached its high

cry, elected individuals responded to social panic, sweeping up associates, accessories and sending tens of thousands of people to long stretches in jail. details of a crime were fed into a formula that reduced judicial discretion and imposed high mandatory minimum sentences. looks like we're now at the beginning of the end of that system at least for the moment, with reoffending and reincarceration a constant problem, can this new policy achieve its stated goal of reducing prison overcrowding? joining my now mark mower, steven cook and walter boyd. steven cook let me start with you. you're part of the profession that sends these people to priz on in thprison in the first pla.

does this fairly limited program have a chance of accomplishing some good things? >> well, are you speaking to the mandatory minimums? >> of allowing these 6,000-plus to leave confinement. >> all right, well, so we're very concerned about the release of mass numbers of federal prisoners. the numbers that you've been given of 6,000. the truth is that it's going to be more than that because right now, the judges are processing a large number of eligible defendants as we speak. so the numbers will be higher than that. but we're extremely concerned about the recidivism of those offenders. i'll give you one example from a previous release, roderick bates was supposed to get out in december of 2011. in october of 2011 when he should have been in prison he

committed a coldblooded murder in chattanooga. we're concerned about the recidivism of those who are going to be released. >> about half play eventually be released by this program. is it really a good rule of thumb that one release going wrong is the way we should understand whether this program works or not? >> no, it isn't. and of course if you look at statistics, the most recent bureau of justice statistics reflect a recidivism rate of about 77%. those are the sorts of things we should be concerned about. but you're absolutely right, we shouldn't use isolated examples like a marijuana trafficker who may have gotten a sentence without hearing all the facts to guide our -- how we proceed from here. the vast majority of people who are in federal prison and who are being released have committed very serious offenses. i give you one example of a defendant i prosecuted. his name is

robert roberto dominguez. he was captured with cocaine an $500,000 cash. he was considered a mere courier. those are the folks we are releasing. >> robert mower, is he right, there may be serious blow-back here. >> we need context the 6,000 people getting out in the next week or so. this is in a context of 600,000 people who come home from federal prison each year. yes we have a serious challenge how these people come home whether they're prepared, whether we're radar in the community to deal with and yes many of them will reoffend. but we could say let's keep them all there for the rest of their lives. that would be one way to avoid that.

i don't think that's fiscally responsible and certainly not compassionate. so we need to talk about real ways to ease that transition. >> well, boyd st. leonard's ministry works with the offenders. what do they need to see that they get back to the community? >> we are reentry home, the thing we offer which we believe is essential to their reentry is food shelter and clothing. beyond that we can begin to do assessments and work on some of the other skills that are required for them to move towards having sustainable lifestyles and become independent and become economically viable. >> you work with people who are getting out of the state system in illinois. illinois has a fairly high recidivism rate but yours is very low. what are you doing that makes the difference? >> well, again, you know, the problem is on the other end actually. many of the people who return from prison in the state of illinois return to low income

communities that are experiencing negative job growth in this high unemployment already in those communities. so that's not a whole lot for them to nurture their reentry on. so we step in that vacuum and we provide a wholesome reentry household for people to return to that is regulated according to principles of values consistent of the norms of society and we have the resources to nurture their reentry and i think being long on wisdom and patience we are able to reenter them more successfully. oftentimes people will come home to families that really can't do the kind of case managements necessary for people to really get a foothold. they don't know where the services are that they need and they don't have the resources to support them in that process. >> gentlemen stay with us. prison sentences are politically sensitive. prosecutors are elected around the country. state legislators and members of

congress may have one eye on the research and one eye on the opinion polls when they propose a new formula determining penalties. even as many states have wrestled with severe overcrowding in jails and prisons. arguments for and against release, is this new penalty just one shocking crime with from being redebated relitigated and re

>> ali velshi, lifting the lid... >> cameras in place for money and not safety. >> on the red light controversy. >> they don't give two cent about your safety. >> there's an increase in rear end accidents. >> ali velshi on target: hitting the breaks.

>> dozens are killed in another day of violence in syria as world can't agree to more talks to find a solution to the crisis. is hello from doha everyone i'm kamal santa maria. the u.s. is sending special forces into syria to help in the fight against i.s.i.l. bucharest 27 are killed many more