how come american, a locally in politics, i would go to fund raisers in my count, and the fund-raiser there would be no black people but me and one or two others. that was pretty bothersome to me because i knew then the people in that room probably had the greatest influence on that prosecutor and those were his supporters and so i clearly could see why maybe it was a little different because most politicians the most important period of their career, he tended to have those people around him so that concerned me. the other ones i looked at are those who are appointed, the appointment process, i don't know if you knows is that people we tend to put on the bench played a big role in this too. the few times we have a chance to influence judges in personal relationships or i use a

different way, when people come in front of my commission i take the vantage of the opportunity to ask probing questions which you tend to see some times when you are lawyers, mostly you believe you should be judges because you are entitled to it or you are qualified. that is part of it. i tend to think you want people with a high sense of consciousness. one of us was john steal from chicago who told his story one day and he said he was serving as an appellate court judge and ran across a case, the person was released from jail, the appellate judge, i was so moved by his conviction because i sat on the appellate commission, federal district commission, i saw those type of people who feel so compelled by simple

justice that they were led by that more so than believing that they were so qualified by a judge and that is why they should be appointed so we should use the opportunity to make sure those who are going to sit there as judges have a high sense of consciousness about delivering justice, not just the fact that it is time for them to become a adjudge and they deserved it. so if you put those types of people in the equation on the bench then you also get a different type of outcome and different effect on our race. [applause] >> thank you. here we are. thank you. good evening. how is everybody doing? i was lucky enough to be invited to be part of this panel and i was here, and i am very happy to be here. i am one of the attorneys in the

state of new york, a case -- joined with the city of new york which the last week or so, the stop and frisk program is unconstitutional. i want to ask you a question quickly. the criminal justice system is broken on so many levels, i need to tell you it is also broken for latino americans and latinos in this country as well. the exacerbation of the criminal justice -- might as well quote what it is, punishment industry because we do punishment very well in the united states. we still incarcerate more persons per capita than any country in the world regardless, desperate to might be ruling, tyrannical people who may rules those countries, regardless of oligarchies, doesn't make a

difference. we put more people behind bars in the united states because it is an effective social to lend the same social tool visited upon and create havoc on african-american community is creating havoc in the latino community in the united states as well and as a result what we are dealing with in new york city is the intersection between policeing which makes sense and policeing which is completely anathema to the kind of issues that have to be done, when it is aggressive and overof policing in the results we are dealing with in new york, 4.4 million stocks and frisks over a quarter of years in which we are told by the mayor and the police commissioner that it is to prevent crime before it happens which is why we are going to target black and latino youth

and older individuals, not just young people. then it becomes convention which in washington, the war in iraq, stop it -- occurs in new york city at this scale, four.four million. let me end with this quick note. today in city council of new york, city council voted a few hours ago to override the veto of the mayor of new york, between a special monitor at the city level for all police and to add and make sure the racial profiling is also not part of the city administrative code so it is not used by the police department of new york city. the reason i think it is critical not just because the good decision but because it city council of the city of new

york is now all in 2013, persons of color and how do you think it happens? because the voting rights act of 1965, because section 5 of the voting rights act in new york city applies between counties, the same individuals who now look like us are acting like us, representing our interests, overriding the goes when it makes sense and finally standing up to this notion that we have to prevent crime before it starts and target black and latino free people and make comparative high-priced of humiliation, degradation, in dignity in order to, quote, make this city safe. today the city council elected and because of the voting rights act the we are able to do that. the other thing that happens in a city like new york and everywhere else is when you get

the occasional black or latino elected official, that act because of what they have lived. governor person, black man from harlem outlawed the documentation, database of anyone who was stopped and frisked, millions of data entry is being kept by the nypd for all purposes, he made that illegal, and to get rid of those because 90% of people who get stopped and frisked are innocent, don't get charged with anything. why would that be kept in the database. governor person's comment was on have to get stopped and frisked myself. we finally have people who realize, who lived the same experiences and direct experiences, what it means to be stopped, what it means to the

question, what it means to be a suspect even though you have done nothing wrong. finally, the circle of policeing and just policeing and really good policeing has come to fruition. that is what we're dealing with in new york city. [applause] [applause] >> i want to bid polk where he left off because i do believe we live in this perfect storm right now and when i say perfect storm i'm mean 50 years ago they marched for jobs and justice and even though on saturday people get food in their cars and there will be port of potties and there will be food and hotels and it you don't have room you can't get one now all i want you to know that we still need to march for jobs and justice.

and so for us at the naacp this is a 25-8 job. whether it is marching in new york against stop and frisk or being in sanford, florida because they had to have a hearing so people understood this isn't just trayvon martin, trayvon martin is the symbol of all the other trayvon martins because the fact of the matter is that was a community that said this is the last black boy who will die and no one will know about it. this was the last straw and that is the story nobody tells and they had a police chief, there was nothing to investigate. this is a man who had no toxicology tests that night. we know nothing about how his blood alcohol was. you had a community that was fed up and you had those communities all over the country and the

topic today is how your color impacts your justice and that is so important because people forget that and we have reached a point where things were going so well, we forgot to talk about all the things that still needed to be done and why we had to finish. it should be about how we finish because the fact of the matter is that we weren't finished and we reached a point in our history where we weren't talking about it but just, injustice here is injustice anywhere, whether they are brown or yellow or red or black, until we get this right as a nation, a nation that has 5% of the world population and 25% of the world's prisoners, until we get this right we will have to keep doing this. i don't want to be here 50 years from now, i will be old enough that i can maybe make it back for the next one that this is so important because our children

are being targeted and the fact of the matter is we need to share these stories. i was going to share with you briefly about john mcneil in georgia, this is a man who stood his ground, he was on his property, in his house and a man, a white man came and threatened him and his son with a knife and even though he called 911, even though he fired a warning shot he continued to advance on this family and so when mr. mcneil stood his ground, the castle doctrine in georgia and shot him and killed him, just terrified the white neighbor next door, when he killed him he was sentenced to life in prison and can i just tell you for the record when the georgia cobb county police state is self-defense that is beyond reasonable doubt. if cobb county georgia police come to your trial and testify for you i think when they got on

a stand, it was self-defense. i think the whole trial should end than. but none to 74 days after this event happened, after the police ruled it was self-defense he was tried and convicted and sentenced to life and i have to tell you people came to me and said get rid of the appeal and make this go away, if he pleads to manslaughter they will let him go, he should not be in jail another day anyway no matter what he pleads, the system was broken because this should not have happened to him, he got life for doing that which he should do. but it didn't work very hard for him but he is older, he was a businessman, had never been tested for anything in his life. i tell you the stories, i tell

you about marissa alexander in florida, protect yourself, get away from me, i won't be of use anymore and she gets 20 years. i say this because these stories show that is broken and we can do better. how dare we go across the world and say that we believe in justice and democracy where we prevent people from voting because we don't want people voting will be fair judges or fair legislators. we don't want that. when did we become that america? i do not believe that is the america that we are. we need to stand people up and say true patriots want people to be able to go and vote because that is how we change all of these other things. [applause] >> all right! all right! >> we would like to get to questions but i think we all been inspired by these remarks

from people i have enormous respect for and they focus primarily on a very important and until recent years not sufficiently discussed national problem. i would like to bring it back as barbara asked me to to the difference of columbia because it is instructive and teaches the same lessons you learned and in part because there's a movement in which each of you will play a part if you live here and live in the area and went to help us, first thing to say is many people understood this. into a few weeks ago when a report was issued that we commissioned with the help of five distinguished judges and the assistance -- a lot of people did not understand the dimensions of the inequality the criminal justice system and the district was visiting upon our african-american population. many people do not know despite

what many have fought for years african-american adults now make up less than 50% of the population of folks over 18, almost 43%. and yet when you look at arrests in the district over 80% of those arrested continue to the african-american. people do not understand the 19 of 20 arrests in the district of columbia were for nonviolent offensess, they do not understand that 30% of the african-american male population is arrested every year, they didn't understand there are 140,000 arrests in the district of columbia, 96% of them for nonviolent offensess, as one explained in new york most of these are cases that were never prosecuted but they leave an enormous percentage of the african-american population forever with an arrest record with all the problems that we know that encumbers, essentially

what we have done in the district of columbia we have done in this period with african-american mayor, african-american majority, we have essentially criminalize a large percentage of the black population in our city, generally for offenses is certainly involved unequal enforcement of the law and to some extent conduct that should probably be treated outside the criminal justice system and that brings me to what was recommended as a result of this study. i want to be sure everybody is aware of it, there is an immediate recommendation to engage in dialogue with law-enforcement people, committee appointed committee of four distinguished lawyers, two african-american lawyers, of 4 u.s. attorney, another man who led for years the washington area prisoners project and also william taylor, former public defender, some of you are familiar with.

this group of lawyers has become a dialogue with the police chief, and it is important to talk to people particularly when results like this are on the table. we are facing a different dynamic than new york, we don't have mayor bloomberg, we don't have a police chief who has thumbed his nose at the african-american community and the dialogue is beginning which we have some reason to think will be productive in terms of getting information from the police that will further enable us to understand these extraordinary racial disparities that have been identified. we also begun something where many people might be able to help, the process is underway, community dialogue throughout the african-american communities in our city to explain this study, to take testimony from people who may indeed have exactly the type of experiences that make up the litigation in new york. we want to get as much evidence to support that as possible so

we can actually exercise our options to look at things that might be necessary as far as litigation if we cannot negotiate a solution here. there's also a major effort underway to continue a dialogue in the community involving as many people as possible including the education again getting to some of the things that were mentioned by daryl parks talking to prosecutors and judges to educate the judiciary in the city by having meetings and sessions to explain this report to them and to prosecutors. the other thing to point out, important recommendation, one of the most significant findings here is a huge percentage of drug arrests in the city, 90% or more are of african americans generally for simple possession of drugs which most of us probably would agree should be regulated, totally outside the criminal justice system, at least in terms of simple

possession is concerned, marijuana being the primary example, but the judges who oversaw the issue unanimously endorsed taking the position that all drug use should be seen as a medical problem, a public health issue, not as a criminal justice concern which has led to these incarcerations of millions of people in this country, the vast majority minority people over the last decades. i think the movement now before the d.c. council would be decriminalizing marijuana is one of the most important initiatives we could imagine because now it has support not only of the vast majority of d.c. council, if it is past and it will come forward to the d.c. council in september it will send an important signal nationally just as the report we have issued to call attention to these issues is one that should be repeated in every city in the

united states with the same disparities that are found by an examination of the problem so i would close simply by saying the lawyers committee, we certainly intend to cooperate with the national in this as two for the reports you are about to commence, the first is about getting underway with tomorrow's research and that is a detailed examination of the collateral consequences of arrest and conviction on people. we know it dramatically impacts and limits the opportunities for housing, employment, public benefits, virtually anything we need by way of our society to a dance. it is probably the single greatest cause of the employment problem that jesse jackson spoke about earlier which we all know is a critical problem. there is an effort to address, ban the box legislation, an effort to provide protections for people with these records in terms of employment. long-distance has to be gone still to get that enacted.

same is true in terms of protection for people seeking the ability to rent or buy housing. those are among the things that will be looked at on the second study, the third study is an ongoing effort being committed in to the form of a study to look the conditions of confinement which affect men and women from the district of columbia who are imprisoned. often in the district that means going to a prison thousands of miles away from their home, 8,000 district incarcerated individuals are 100 different prisons in 30 different states. the un fairness of this, serious for everyone. particular the for women who are mothers and children, we intend to address all those in a report which is under way and remember in the district of columbia we are talking about the bureau of

prisons. i heard jocelyn samuels and dialog with she had to say and what the attorney general has announced and the president has committed to but i would like everybody to remember the issue of drug reform is something the president of the united states and the attorney general have a great deal to say about. they have come no where near to utilizing the full reach of their authority to move on reform and frankly have done very little at this point to deal with reform of the federal prison system which is really where d.c. -- >> thank you, thank you, so much. thank you. at this time if you have a question, please hold them up and they will be collected and we will start going to the questions. before i get to the questions, before i get to the question to couple of quick things, everyone. first of all, how do people get a copy of the report? is it on line?

>> i'm told there are a few here but the long line, washingtonlawyers, you can download. >> second thing is i recommend to everyone that you look at the new york times from six weeks ago. there was an editorial from the editorial board talking about the fact that in the united states each year that is almost 900,000 arrests for marijuana. overwhelmingly for simple possession. three quarters of everyone arrested, three quarters of everyone arrested is african-american. so we need to really be looking at this issue, marijuana

incarceration, marijuana prosecution in a very different way going forward, in perfect the editorial concluded the only thing you could conclude about these statistics is that the use of marijuana arrests could only be classified as, quote, h full of racial oppression. editorial board, new york times. so we need to really be thinking about these issues. also, let me do one really important thing. we are in a beautiful facility, this has been made possible by our board members from this great law firm, i want to thank mr. andy moog. i don't know if he is still here, he was here earlier but i want to thank him.

[applause] >> i want to thank the law firm for having us here day. i also want to remind everybody, we have been talking about the voting rights act over and over again, the lawyers committee, huge issue, if you want to know how to get involved, how to help out, text voting rights, text voting rights to 313131 and you would get alert and other information, text voting rights, 31313131, that will get you understand we will be perpetuating that number all over the place. so here are some of our great audience questions and i want to thank the audience again for your patience, you have really been a great audience being here to help us do things.

okay. stand your ground. here is the essence of the question. if stand your ground was not part of the defense, how was it used as part of the instructions to the jury? >> very simply. the actual defense, for whatever reason the jury structure for the case was very convoluted, they had two days of hearings on the issues but someone decided to use the concept that george zimmerman had the right to stand his ground and that was the terminology that was used. i think it was granted for other purposes later, but it was just plugged in for whatever reason. >> okay. this one is one of the questions

that the judge actually talked about, i really recommend it you haven't read the floyd legong case decision you really want to read it. it is an absolutely amazing piece of legal analysis, one of the most significant decisions on race and criminal justice in a long time, and this question goes from talking about repeatedly in her decision, how do we address the neurobiology symptoms that result from the trauma of being arrested and processed through the criminal justice system? >> what the judge did, remember the floyd case was actually worked on by the center for constitutional rights, lawyers

like johnson more, the floyd case clearly recognize the decision of floyd, the decision several months ago was gone, that the indignity and humiliation of being stopped and detained by police for no reason whatsoever except that you are a member of a racial group creates a psychological harm and is devastating. remember you have to put this in the context of what the city was saying to the world and in court. the city was basically arguing that because blacks and latinos commit or are arrested and charged with crimes at high levels, that we should use that measure to figure out who we are going to target. it got to the point of absurd ready when mayor bloomberg literally said if you look at

the people who commit violent crime in the city of new york, white folks are being overstocked. white folks in new york are being stopped excessively and the two big points in the point that you just said, the first issue is i have been saying this for a long time but i am not here to decide on the effectiveness of stopped and frisked as crime prevention. because there are a lot of things that are effective in crime prevention. you can put people away for decades, right? you can force coercion, you can force confessions, but i'm only here to decide what is constitutional. and in a country like ours it is unconstitutional to stop people

and suspect individuals of criminality just because they are members of a particular race, and the second thing she said which is very telling is this notion that weakens stop individuals in new york city because they happen to be members of racial groups cannot be tied to commit crime in new york city because the people that were stopped, and she said this after nine weeks of trial, 4.4 million files reviewed, people that were stopped in new york were innocent, innocent, you are more likely if you are a police officer to find drugs on a person if you stopped them if they were white versus black or latino, you are more likely to find a weapon, a gun on a person who was stopped if they were white and if they are black or latino. so the issue is we cannot permit

suspect identification data to be the litmus test to decide do we stop. those two findings, whoever commits a crime is one issue but the new york city experience has been stopping people who have not committed any crime at all. only 12% so to speak, the hit rate of stop and frisk, up were 12%. six% of those stopped were arrested, 6% of those stopped -- even the hit rate is inflated because people get summonses for violations, not crimes. people get picked up in new york city 15% of the time, people who get arrested after a stop are arrested for marijuana. you don't know that before you stop them. people get arrested in new york city after their stopped because of outstanding warrants.

they didn't know that before they stopped them. thank you. they didn't even have reasonable suspicion. there is nothing, you are black or your latino. and she said that is unconstitutional. >> all right. [applause] >> i want to say in answer to her question i believe this is a national -- >> exactly! >> unless we fix it for all of us it will remain broken for all of us because it is broken for the people who look at the world that way so now it is broken for them and for all the people victimized by that way of thinking so to me it is a national -- always those people, always them. i have news for you all. we are all inextricably connected to a single garment of destiny and every time we forget

that we do it again so we will keep doing it again until we get it right. >> all right, beautiful. this set of questions are very similar, and i am going to ask them in the order that they were received. all of these questions basically go to lawyers and i have a question for non lawyers as it happens. basically, what the legal ramifications that the legal community can pursue that will serve to minorities on the floor so that there won't be so many crimes, less of a concern. what else can we do? how can we get it right? how can at licensed attorney held a call raised in this forum, how can lawyers reach out to state and federal legislators to assure fair and unbiased laws

and criminal justice reform such as justice investment programs. >> if you want to talk about d.c. i heard you say that. any lawyer who wants to identify what this report said with the advocacy which is now beginning to deal with the disparities we found particularly the drug laws, just call us up and get our list and drop in, the same will be true when other reports on collateral consequences are done. there will be a whole range of legislative and policy measures, the more people endorse them the more tell the council and the mayor about them, more quickly we change these things. the marijuana law which is the biggest single law that is impacting this in terms of arrests is up for grabs right now before the d.c. kill the. we have a chance to change that law in the next three months. the more people say they want to change it the sooner it gets

done. >> we are a volunteer organization at the naacp so we take volunteers all the time. go to our web site naacp.org. we also have priorities over incarceration and undereducation. you are lawyers the you have all those tools in your tool kit, you don't have to rush out and file a lawsuit. there are many things you can to whether it is election protection, we participate in each election protection or whether it is getting people off of the march, i have to make sure everything is right. and don't limit yourself by the lawyer you are because we need all kinds of lawyers. >> the vote of law firms is

critical and excellent work. i am sure all the success is attributed to the law firm that my office and sherman sterling was the -- i mentioned before covington and burlington the lawyer in the fluid case, these are excellent law firms and we couldn't help it. >> thank you so much. >> the opposite question was what actions are complementary? what actions consume groups take to effectively tackle some of the troubling issues in the criminal justice system? >> part of it is what you saw a dream defenders do in tallahassee. [applause]

>> those students came up in tallahassee, we both read the same chapter and so they have been around the hole activism and we have strong history of activism in that city from student leadership but you have to pick and choose what you do. you can't be discouraged, people in the public, have to encourage them and stay active. not all will be leaders but will forever when is to an activist. >> a little peace at the activism of immigration reform and the title of my piece, sometimes it follows. i am old enough to say i have been lucky to be privileged to the number of activities, a number of efforts but sometimes i follow, students at the dream

at levels of immigration reform in tallahassee and reports and filed them and we do this quite a bit in cities that are working, and to top watch, individuals, young people with video cameras, engagement with regular folk, the engagement gets recorded and have a record of what is happening. all the students need to be supported in every way, shape or form. >> i want to make sure everyone, be sure to read the order on remedy. two decisions, one thing you have an opinion on remedy and one of the things that she orders is for a number of police officers per precinct to wear body cameras and evidence of

interacting with people on the street. and to admire the racial elements of that interaction. and also that citizens do it. >> we have used in college chapters in campuses, certainly in every state and jurisdiction and those young people organize, how to create their own marches and youth and college, called the dream down there and going to join with them, and watch out because we are going to help them and young people started the movement. everybody forgets that, and 50 years ago meeting all these people, they were 13.

and they might not all the leaders and they learn to follow the march on everything we need. >> i want to remind people there is another thing we can do. and green defenders have done and they are awesome. i want to remind people there is the new movement going around called decarcerate. they are active in pennsylvania and other states. bill on line and look for that. and to diminish and eliminate prison industrial complex. it is a wonderful movement that looks at how their states are spending money on prison, the whole relationship between prisons and profit motives and states that are making these

pledges, and to be incarcerated from private prisons. this is an important movement. i urge you to join that, and the lawyer's committee looking at a way of creating a true powerful gideon army. and making announcements about programs, and the national bar association, the naacp and the lawyers committee will be launching early in 2014 six new programs on expunged and including a program in the district, creating programs in virginia, helping with the program in maryland and we are going to be doing work about

reform. so everybody can listen to them and let the panel answer them, in ten minutes. so quickly. these are from people, i am so appreciative of view. and from all over the country, thank you for being here. what is the possibility of reforming the panel to require representation of minority groups. and ridden cards about the jury and the government trial. and influence improperly to take the pledge. and any way to amend sentencing

guidelines if for is illegal drug possession charges to get rid of these minor offenses. in illinois there are african americans state legislature passed a law that required judicial districts to elect minority judges connecting guns anywhere else. will last question they had is a question about what is going on with risk alexander to get their relief. those are the questions and i will entertain one answer. >> answer all of them? >> whatever question you want to answer. >> the sentencing commission will start hearing, looking at those logs and i do believe the

guideline is about time. i remembered the a law clerk and the sentencing guidelines and minimums coming out and i remember all the federal judges in the united states district court, and these are unconstitutional and putting themselves under the flame to see these are wrong and being trounced, and the sentencing guidelines being reviewed because they don't work. they are broken and take out the justice. >> jury reform, panels of juries in the criminal justice system. and get the message out. i am dying to be on a jury.

the fact of the matter is, the more we get the public service announcements, jury service is quintessential to a fair system, the more we make it possible to look at jury service as service -- >> thank you. >> i learned just the other day, looking at who appears there is a problem in the d.c. system, african-americans tend to appeal for service for reasons that is not totally known at a lower percentage than white jurors who are called and in the district since there is no follow-up to people who can't come and appear you end up with panels that are disproportionately white, many ways to protest, one is to --

the other is create a much higher level of civic engagement around the duty of serving because it obviously would make a big difference. >> thank you, thank you. i have in concluding i wanted to ask each panelist to address as we conclude if there was one thing you could do right now to change the criminal justice system, one solution, what would it be? one thing. think about that and also do this. there were two questions that were statements and i want to acknowledge them. one was regarding the infamous arm of the fbi that was used to blackmail dr. martin luther

king, tried to, and reused to start off problems between groups, all kinds of problems, horrible problems and there are a lot of political prisoners that resulted from some of this, these terrible programs, and there was one question about what could be done about the aftermath of that. the other question went to the -- basically talking about how hard it is for african-americans to file criminal charges against white. that is a problem in many jurisdictions so we recognize those and recognize -- i recognize everyone, what we concluded today is we need criminal justice in criminal

justice panel number 2. we have only really looked at the tip of the iceberg today. there is a lot more i wanted to talk about. i wanted to talk about the media and fear mongers and women in the system. and the lot of other issues in this time frame. and in the legal symposium on this question so that we can really dig deeply and not only talk about the problems that do what we are doing now and talk about solutions and i want to turn it over to daryl parks to answer that question. you can do two but you have one or two solutions what would they be? >> it is a tough question.

economics and politics of those who affect up week of a big role of every uninhabited country and the criminal-justice system, those things improved and the numbers changed dramatically in criminal justice. that is my take on it. >> i am going to check in here. we see reports that the prison population has been going down for three years and those reports in the federal system, just a small part of the overall incarceration issue in the united states and what the states are doing, as if you are saying a person who might be overweight at the tune of a thousand pounds, lost fifty pounds is no longer rubies, that is not true obviously. it is an issue i would love to

have a further discussion of and the audience to hear you talk about. the elephant in the room is the war on drugs. the engine that drives criminal justice, the engine that drives overincarceration, what makes america the land of punishment is the ridiculous notion that whatever a person decides to put in his or her body can be controlled by law enforcement as opposed to medical treatment. until we address the issue of drugs and drug use, and the united states is the biggest consumer of illegal drugs anywhere in the world, until we address the issues of border security, there was a caravan for peace led by a poet, the caravan of people who were coming, families who were lost, family members on the mexican

side of the border, 60,000 had been lost in several years in this ridiculous war regarding drugs and all they said was one thing, america, please stop the war on drugs. it is killing our people. gun proliferation is all over mexico. when are we going to do something that is saner. one in the caravan, we came up here to civilize the big plays. [speaking spanish] >> we came to symbolize people to talk about drug use because the current way, started during the nixon administration, the current way is not working. that is what drives criminal justice. that is what we have to have an honest conversation about and i was about to say the best part.

i want to be able to have this conversation without people looking at me like i am some sort of drug day. last conversation i had was in queens and they came up to me and said you are not on drugs, are you? know! can't we have the same conversation about drugs without thinking the only reason i want to talk about it is so i can have a hit? by want to have the same conversation. this is what drives the united states criminal justice system. we deal with it, we're not dealing with the real issue. >> all right, thank you, thank you. >> one big one and i will sneak in my second one. my big one is i would expand voting rights. if the irs can provide me a social security number i should be able to vote if i am in kansas, i should be able to put that number in and it should count in d.c. and no reason we shouldn't have the technology and the force of will americans

to make that happen and i will tell you we make that happen and more people and do that and it is easier and so much better, we can pick the school board that makes sure our kids get educated so they don't go to jail because if you want to keep it out of jail you send them to college. that is how you change the statistical outcome for young black man, sent him to college, they don't tend to go to jail. that is so important and we forget all of these basic rights that we take so for granted come from how you pick your police chief, how you decide how the money in your community is spent that comes from voting and the thing i would sneak in is i would eliminate for profit prisons. >> all right! all rights! all right! >> organized, advocate, create collisions, the drug war has to

stop. the drug use wind up behind our report, of the most distinguished judges in this jurisdiction, many had been prosecutors. they said it. we have to change the drug laws. they were in favor of looking at legalization of all drugs in a regulated way. one option was every drug, until we change the drug law the rest are there too, we won't really put a serious dent in these problems and i echo what people have said, got to do away with private prisons and decriminalized as many offenses as possible, eliminate them. >> all right, thank you, in closing, just a couple notes. as i said, we will definitely continue to look get this issue, advocate, mitigate, legislate, do everything we have to do to attack and destroy the present

industrial complex. we will also, very important that we be mucking at any law possible to deal with the changing of the impact of the world of drugs, even president clinton who helped perpetuate this has denounced his own actions. we need to end racial profiling, period. end it. it is horrible, it does nothing for law enforcement and safety. we need all the lawyers to dedicate their time to helping on this issue. don't leave it to these poor overworked public defenders. we need to take an interest in doing this, we need to change the policy that caused my own home to be invaded and for me to be held three hours under guns and threats of destruction.

we need to change so many things but also to volunteer, we have a school to prison pipeline project we are running in new jersey and we need attorney befallen tears for that project, we are learning so much about how students get pushed out of schools and denied their opportunity is. we know that 80% of every person, at 80% of all people incarcerated whack a high school diploma. the strongest correlation besides race. we also need to look at the fact that in our country the average incarcerated person is over $30,000. our average expenditure in the united states on students is $10,000 plus a little over $10,000. why not have a state law

everywhere that says no state can spend more on prisons than it spends on education. these are some of the things we need to think about. i want you to join me in thanking this incredible panel, what an incredible honor it has been to serve. we have for you today as a special memento, we might just mail it to you. [laughter] >> all of you,. everyone please think this panel. wonderful, wonderful. [applause]

>> the committee would love to see you tomorrow at those ports panel where as i mentioned we are going to have sports legend and grades like jerry hartman, nba player, we are going to have the reverend jesse jackson on the panel. there will also be women, incredible women leaders like janeyea butler, one of the hall of fame collegiate champion basketball players. we will also have w. nba representatives, up we're going to have andre collins and other leading current players from the nba and the nfl also join us and we will also have the boxing industry represented and in addition october 24th, mark your calendar right now, october 24th

the national bar association, the lawyers committee and howard university will be hosting a legal symposium called a looking at the last term of a supreme court in particular but looking deeply at issues around voting rights, affirmative action. help me, john. environmental justice, at immigration, so we hope that you will join us on october 24th for our symposium. keep rocking and rolling, let's change america. thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

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