and do it? you must and build a store of your own. and the other with groceries. do you ask where is the money? we have spent more than enough on nonsense to do what bill and we should want to. she said this in 1832. a restart was possibly a first african-american, male or female, to call publicly on blacks to support each other in business. would like to fire wretchedness in this, the first is the death of her husband only three years after they got married, for the husband's business stolen by

white business associates who robbed their estate. instead of crumbling in the aftermath of such tragedy stewart got a angry and inspired writing opinion pieces and speaking publicly and calling on blacks to lift themselves up from spiritual, education or economic death. a decade before frederick douglas turner private outcry against racial injustice, my voice from marie to today is about a woman of color and howard. and how silly and hopeless our brothers and sisters and elders and ancestors must have thought when they went to work, to church, desperate, miles and miles under the hot alabama son purposely function available montgomerie buses passed right back. i think about the woman who inspired smart and strong activism. i wasn't around but i do know the time when our community

changed together and our country came together because if black woman took the same thing. and comparing sacrifice, and if i don't learn from her sacrifice, and then insult her, would they give up. in that instant, that decided to become a revolutionary. she did that for me and do this for her. today is about all of us. remembered today the black people who died in fields and factories and farms working and slaving for others and in so doing, billing and other family's ridges and businesses that still exist today. businesses our community need. remember thousands of a entrepreneurs who were shot at and jailed for daring to do what business owners i support try to

do. what i ask our young people to do, what some of you do, and that is half of the community of quality goods or services and expect to be valued and supported. take some time to imagine they have their economic thriving economic affairs torch to the ground, limited because business owners and consumers alike had to be reminded violently and unambiguously that they did not have the right of on for reportship, to have nestle sustain community. to me must honor those torch towns too and go home and tell our children about those towns, think about later tonight and later this week when you consider whether it is worth it to pay a little more or local little harder or drive all little farther to support the great black businesses we do still have. tell your children, your friends that on the day before dr. king was framed, to support black

businesses. our noble dr. king wasn't fighting for economic empowerment to not just basic human rights but fighting for our businesses, not just the right to support everyone else's, black owned businesses. is the key to see black and businesses in the same sentence. this is what police a year, and will see it in the book. we have got to strengthen black institutions. i call on you to take your money out of the bank's downtown and deposit your money and we want to have a movement in memphis, tell you to follow what we had doing, put your money there. you have six or seven insurance companies in memphis. we want to have -- take out your insurance fair. two things i want to talk about, you know he died in memphis, he said this the day before he was murdered and he was the sixth or

seventh insurance company in memphis in 1968. we don't have one now. in the whole country. not one property and casualty insurer. you can't find a life insurance company doling out $10,000 funeral and royal coverage but that is it and they are barely hanging on. health insurers, please. the crumbling of our banks, trying not to cry already. that is why you did but you know longer have a black bank in florida now. you have one branch of a national black don't saying in miami on 79th street. remember it this black history fact, and employment in the black community was statistically in measurable in places like also, sugar land jacksonville and our historic system, our unemployment was nationally lower than that of whites all the way through 1940. i bet you did not know that.

black family circulated in hundreds of millions of dollars in our hotels. hospital systems, grocery stores, lawyers, hardware stores, department stores, shipping dies, steel mills, farming, regions, stock brokerages, it became clear that our jewish friends and their struggle to make it here, people of color would be able to do what ever they want to define the future, our communities to prosper. we could realize it represents social equality of we focus on our economics, not just our political empowerment. dr. king that. those who opposed him news that. and other black history fact, 90% of the lynchings of blacks during jim crow were business owners. economic terrorism. that area called black wall

street, bond and burned crowds watched, called them negros. i know it is sad but i have to do this. i had to start conversations is with all this violent imagery and horrifying facts. i have to give you this contest. the have to do this because they walked up from a paradigm of vengeance. it is love for those -- and for the history they created at that we so easily missed, the freedom fighters, every day revolutionaries love for them to fuel my passion and commitment to black businesses and neighborhoods now so i am asking you to include them and those business owners and their families and communities antiterrorism indiscriminations day in toward and a picture of racism's some miniscribe to me and hold them in our conference today, envisioned them, think of

them, embrace them, bring them into this pretty south florida day. i think of often because every abandoned storefront or what, or everybody up business on the west side of chicago is an affront to them. each time we dismiss every business owner from our community because of a bad experience we had with one or two folks we engaged a year ago we dishonor it them, brave men who were hanged for trying to keep a sport. carlos tower can tumble down. being farseeing and practical man, train your heart, your head, your face is here and not a farm. read the langston hughes and his battle with booker t.. your faith is here and not far. let down your bucket where you are.

six hours is how much we invest in ourselves, our children, our neighborhood, six hours, you owe me a cadillac, two week, nice. in your pocket, that is how you and chris me. six ours is where we are now after the struggle of terrorism and prosperity, six hours. i think of our mighty mcmurray and our sister brendel holmes who is here today. she came to this conference for the first time ever just to support me. this system did not know me from a bowl of soup two months ago but she lives in south florida, knows my story and she is a problem of color and although brenda is the executive director of the national black mcdonald owners association, this is in less than two weeks and she is the owner of 11 mcdonald's stores herself. she is with us here.

i have here, i think of brenda and mary. and make sure they're 10,000 more brendas or maries. i.t. pour it into my bucket, wake up in the morning, brush my teeth. i did it at walgreen's and i thank you for giving henry stewart and his family it chance to turn and the role models and create jobs in chicago. i wake my girls abandoned some going in the morning. i have some coffee, gourmet coffee, in chicago, he wrote the theme himself in his state of the art plant on the south side. he makes custom flavors for me and my favorite is to my favorite is second favorite, greg is the tall strong cup of

coffee himself, a personal trainer who puts on a weekend fitness camp free on the south side to help them learn about fitness and health. i don't know how mr. folger looks or mr. franklin looks but they are silent and now you can order cyrus coffee on line but i prefer to pick my coffee a personally with greg so i can see so my children can see a business owner in their community. i walk over and get my lawn. at his church on the south side his alarm company does the same thing, in salt cheap pads and motion detectors to pay for monitoring and call service, same thing $0.40 a month in the bucket. some other business owner to revamp a strip mall on the other

side. and my bucket is halfway full. my pajamas are still want. this is where i live my life. i'm not a depressed overworked activist. once i set my bucket down, it is not as hard as you may think. i spend a lot and spend where i can with local business and the mainstream businesses, please don't leave this out. mainstream businesses the do their part to enable my supplier, my franchise class into media outlets and vendors like mcdonald's does with brenda. here is the kicker, and if i am still flushed, it is one point. black owned big girl cosmetics by our sister highly russell, and the business to dream of

where so many think all they have is chicago. and big girl cosmetics is available at macy's. big girl cosmetics at macy's. america succeeds when kindly russell succeeds. i am marie, i am a revolutionary and go up and down and if that is flat that is the message. my hair looks all right today although it is killing me with this humidity. one of the largest black women don't national hair-care products, companies atlanta based businesses. you can get products online and/or in walmart. my money is still safe, fdic insured, it is not in the right bank but some of it is. i think about dr. king getting killed telling me to put my money in black and banks. i put a little bit, some of its

in the black owned bain. strait part for me is not finding these businesses, but getting my other smart successful black women to make sure they put a little money in a black candidate to try to make sure some of your money goes back into the community on a regular basis. that has been the hard part. to proclaims supporting black businesses is right and necessary to our community's survival. that is the hard part but not today i get a break. i am with the w o c e c. by the time i am done with you we will lennar buckets up and fill barack and assess our buckets down for these children who need to see mary, who need to see brenda and bernadette.

they are limited by defining circumstances and reality that is relegated our little girls and doomed them to inferior education environments and levels of steam. i do that that year and do it over and over again and i bring that year here especially for that little girl and the economically deprived fleeces she come from that tells her she is not good enough, and business, and not good enough to be a congresswomen, successful law firm because she is black and destined for generational poverty and no one she knows you ever heard of is a business owner. that is a problematic situation that tells her she is not good enough and people are not good enough to build or maintain families and businesses and neighborhoods that will support her if she wanted to create an insurance agency or own a restaurant franchise or produce a hit television show. you can do it, carry. you know what i am talking

about. where are you? you can do it. that is our private joke. i had to put that in. we have to do this for these little girls. let me tell you about jordan, i wouldn't have met jordan or go anywhere near she lived had it not been for our famous pledge. 8 dilapidated -- opening a children's clothing store in that neighborhood and she did when her mother, grandmother and grandfather's life-saving is. the score was called jordan's closet. two of them played a national chain. i closed up for my daughter and there was not as much selection as j.c. penney. it was the most beautiful children store i had ever seen. great selection, great prices, clean and sometimes we come to visit because jordan, she was 7, my girls were 3 and 4 and she is like a big sister to my

daughter. saturday evening for an's mom jocelyn and my friend would rent the space out and have tea parties and book clubs for little girls. her grandmother would host a charm school and teach etiquette to the girls in the community for free. what a jam. what a perfect place to take my children and to spend my money. jordan's closet is gone. the business, tea party, family, hope, revenue, taxes in the local school system, increase property values and hope that other businesses will come and ward off a drug and gang activity. all that is gone and an abandoned space. we can tell our little princess jordan to believe in herself, work hard and she can get whatever she wants but when she looks out side or on tv everything is different. businesses like jordan naps cause it come and go all the time mostly because we are not supporting them. we have got to showed jordan,

not just tell, i don't want to just tell jordan and, they used to be able to go to the corner for ice-cream or candy. i don't want to tell what you used to be able to do. why would i tell my daughters that when one closed down in less than a year. and do it because of dr. king or harriet, i can't keep telling our kids to read a book for inspiration. and inspiration comes from the same place minded from watching my beautiful intelligent people, courageous stands, and daring people to conspired to deny -- i walk my girls -- i would not want them to just see it at election time. i want my girls to see those lines for our businesses begin.

i want my girls to see that solidarity in the community but not as excited about that and should be. denied the first chance at a black president. and to serve about economic power, hard wealth and jobs, education and give away on a silver platter, we have to show our youth and the world our business donors, and any political leaders, even the president, we can't keep the pentagon figureheads to restore our greatness, please don't get me wrong, i have known her since 1995, admired him as a strong openly black from the university of chicago a very elitist conservative law school, worked with him at my law school, i was an officer, black law students association, sat side by side and rainbow push on saturday and

the trajectory sunday. i supported him when he helped people, police profiling and predatory linder, helped him run for illinois state office and when he tried to be a u.s. congressman first time, when he decided to run for senate and hope to win organized fund-raisers and pass out fliers, i will be sleeping in my obama pajamas tonight. but our greatness is not in that, it is in making sure as a community that he can keep an eye on the community for a potential victory like businesses should be able to. chris resource are considered -- we have 64,000 grocery stores, there are only 19 grocery stores in the united states. our research tells us we could only find evidence of three to

nine full service grocery store is. there are 48 grocery chains with 10 or more units. said most of them only propped up in the last 15 years. who is shopping at those stores? enabled that growth whose products top shell? is getting jobs at both stores, who is getting set, hispanic consumers like me? i shot that my community since hispanic businesses and employees and children and nothing is wrong with that. that is great for them. my or weak point is i can do is that and also with our landmarks here in that said they approved that close to $1 trillion buying power, maybe 3% to the black community, some analysis and fancy modeling. and $75,000 or more, stay with

me, this part of the black community were to shift that spending from 3% to 10%, i could get you there overnight, 3% to 10%. everything will be done, everything would change. according to those researchers if we were to do that that spending will locally owned business, local baker and spending in the restaurant going for peru and mainstream corporation for the black business, either way if we were to get to that 10% we could create 1 million jobs, 1 million jobs in america, all of them created with money we already have and businesses that already exists. if you won't do it for the plane entrepreneur and freedom fighters. if you don't think it is worth it to recreate the greatness we already have or won't do it for me because you're inspired by my

family or jordan, and the opportunity to create 1 million americans jobs do it just to prove all of those who didn't expect us and deny us, let me tell you about the ceo when asked about comprehension for black own terms. he said quote nick newsweek 1986, black and businesses will disappear and they will be sold to white companies and he was right. magic shades, and wav, carefree and lovely, motions, dark and natural. all those brands only people by every day, a company based out of france and all the money is going who knows where? i can tell you where it is not, not in barry or liberty city baltimore. a l'oreal is making a lot of

great commercials with our people in them, putting a lot of black people on the boxes. l'oreal is not doing business with black businesses. they just add a supplier diversity to their mission statement in 2011. all those years, all those billions and no black interest in that supply chain. last i checked they had one new supplier working with them. he used to work for l'oreal inc. and in france. we have a french brother representing the community at l'oreal. i used to buy dark and lovely but then i learned this information and i switched. i used by dark and lovely and now live by lester. now is available in walmart and i can fight the luster it so i can -- we still have them in the

community. let's unite, let's do that, let's do that so that we can make mr. bonner wrong. let's unite to make mr. bonner rues the day, that black businesses can't class or black people don't care about the community and black people don't understand economic empowerment. can you do that. now that you know more, the whole story about on statistics, about black people. and your face turned blue and you get this on the front page of every paper in the world and that studies by harvard and howard and prove what can happen if people practice more, they are going to come eat some food, and cry and go back home and do nothing. they can't be right. they are not right.

are they right? i am not saying black america versus white america or anyone else, and i am saying we are america ed too. rose is saying we are america too. now you say it, we are america too. it's feels good. we are america too. our jewish friends and atheist friends say we are america too with our ancestors and elders said we are america too. king did and every time each and every one of them did america was made better. this is one of the things barack obama taught me in his constitutional law class. every major tenet of our democracy tell me if i'm wrong, every major turn of our democracy of the legal system, our constitution, the right to a fair trial, the right to vote, right to free speech, labor rights, philip randolph, agencies like the e d s e came

out of the african-american struggle. we did so much, created so much, now we are at -- gave it our way. you know what that is light? you can help me with this too. you court somebody for weeks to be a friend and send flowers, remember what that was like? team knows what i'm talking about. you do that and the big day comes and take it to the dance and when you get there is everything you dream of. get something to drink and then dance with someone else and leave you hanging. that reminds me of this brother named chad. i need to find him and apologize because i did the same thing. that me get to the point. let's not get far in demonstrating our greatness and let us all go now. nothing will change because we have these events. the change happens because we do

something after this event. and would have stood up and stopped a little bit. and stepped up in video with me and he was sweet and cute. and he didn't step up a new too can step up and go home and say it. okay. i know is not easy. we are spending so much crime bill to let our lives and help the community we don't have time to fight. you do have time to look for my friend, smoking a joe hot sauce is available one dixie, the university of chicago, has a plant that employs 20 people that wouldn't have jobs otherwise. how can i complain about the economic situation and not have that on my show in don't like everyone in here does not need hot sauce or you didn't grow up

red hot like me. am i the only one -- we have shoelaces and never once asking who was frank? we are having fun here. who is right? what has he ever done for black people? let's ask the same question. i did and they won't tel. not even wall street how much money they make off of the african-american community but i did my research. i have a big brain appear endive and 60% come from the black community. over 60%. that me back a because i know i am here with a bunch of prestigious churchgoing folks on the bible belt in the united states and you don't even know what tennessee is but i am trying to give more data and reference points and trying to make sure i give you some numbers to back up my premise.

it is a cognac, other black people. 60% to 80% hennessey said, u.s. mint come from the black market. this data was verified by the wall street journal and with their company, wholly dependent on our market to survive they don't even have bought by a diversity program. they don't have mission statement for people and websites much less corporate practice to use contributors and vendors. they took great pride in the national urban league. i have been there. they are not doing business with us. they are partying with us, they're not doing business with us. they don't do anything with our community, tennessee hospitals at home and every -- funded the new florida memorial, urban entrepreneurship sector and i should be teaching at it.

[applause] >> this is an opportunity for revenue on every black bank. there should be dozens of tennessee black distributors and significant advertising in black and media. .. we don't take the time to look. a wonderful black -- all the country, husband and wife, harvard mba. founded the brand when they learned in 2005 south africa

maintains a $3 billion wine industry, only 2% of that comes from black made wind. south africa almost 90% black. now heritage my wine company is the largest and one industry to trade and market africa's black produced one. seven sisters wind is one of those brands. because of apartheid the family was forced to leave south africa. 20 years later they returned and they fulfilled their dreams and make wonderful wine but these are fantastic and we would've never been able to taste these winds had it not been for salina, our sister and her dream. my favorite seven sisters wind, i did at jules, my big grocery store chain in chicago and a drink as much as i can. i drink a lot of it but i'm doing this to help calm you know, salina and the sisters. [laughter] i do it for salina.

i have one more so stay with me. i lecture prestigious universities at all time. trust fund kids have never been to a black neighborhood. they come up to protest me. then after they get the truth and videotape it and figure our story, they come to me with tears in her eyes begging for forgiveness and a list of black businesses. they are ready to do more. for the first time some of them see the direct correlation between high unemployment and the plight of black businesses. last year, jobs numbers came out and seeing and came out and seeing and start pointing out the black unemployment was three times that of whites i was ready to close the conversation. they had been on the show to get my reaction to high like unemployment. you can see i don't care. i'm critical off and husband sick i tell you what, like a pump is so high because no is supporting black businesses and like this is what the highest number of black people. is more would support black

business, we could cure -- before she thundered disney she said this to me. mackey, thank you for teaching america a profound lesson about where our money goes and what it can do. so i said well, thank you. thank you for having me on the show today. [laughter] but, but, fortunately for me, here's the point of the story, right after it didn't go off they did have what a cement economist there with one of those crafts, cnn has the best graphs, and this is black owned businesses get the least support of all american businesses, and only 6% of black buying power goes back to black businesses. they closed the segment by saying this is why all americans need to do more to support black owned businesses. even fox news admitted the black businesses are not treated fairly and said was right to fight for equality. publishers weekly said of my

book it is dynamite and finally someone talked about this subject. c-span did a great story on our experiment. i talked about a great company, a black paper company that can be supported at officemax and staples. next-day c-span and officemax reported that both of the poll numbers were flooded by people looking for that paper company. most of them were not black. they ran that segment over and over again, same time the republican national convention, people were looking at me instead of congressman bryant acceptance speech last night pbs "newshour," the lesser chicago asked me to clarify as a fact after spending a day with is the black businesses -- their white becomes public growth of local black businesses the anderson

effect. i'm anderson by the way. [applause] but i'm not telling you this to brag but i'm telling you this to show i think american is ready for this. i think america is ready to see our commuting empowered, proactively public is supporting our businesses. so that the country can benefit. i really do think america is ready for this. the person who when asked me today how do you do this? how do we do this? how do you stay informed and speak out? how do we act on this? are you ready? magis list. we're going to do maggie's list. we will talk about the our q&a but think about it. our own list we can find a great corporation, a great local businesses, the great products on the shelves that you don't know about and have been dying to support and we can create those million jobs. i think america is ready for magis list by not going to do. i won't do it unless you are ready. now i'm ready to close. i know my time ashore.

you know those montgomery marches, our elders and ancestors, ahead killer dogs at their heels. they marched for 385 days straight. over a year using the economic might to solve our social problems. none of those marchers got back on the bus until they got the respect they deserve. i just need to know, are you marching? are you marching with me, with bernadette, with honorable hastings and honorable edwards? are you marching with brenda, or are you still writing comfortable, settling at 50 in the back? i remember the moment and i'm going to close now for real, and i've got to be tribute to my mother here, seriously. let me tell you why this is so real to me. the moment i was considering shutting down the apartment experiment. i was going to do because i thought about my mother had pancreatic cancer, and she

diagnosed one month before we're going to launch our experiment and the only reason i'm standing today's because she told me, she said i could not stop. she told me this would be most important thing i would ever do. i said are you crazy? how could this be the most important? they have an award named after me at madison junior high school. i know it's close not that they have been awarded every year called maggie award and they give it to the most all around studentcam best student every year. named an award after me. first black prom queen at the high school. i did all that stuff and i said are you satisfied? i did all these accomplishments. i got me a harbored brother from detroit. i got all these accolades. i've worked all these wonderful people. hard to satisfy get? and my mother said to me because she was one of those mothers, i don't have any of those things.

aren't you proud of me? okay, you got me there, it still haven't i done enough to accomplish? she said this to me, another one of those awesome one-liners and she said this to me, i'm going to go out fighting. are you? so am asking you the same thing. i'm going to go out fighting. are you? and just like her brother came up there today, our cuban brother, she was a cuban farmhand. she never graduate from high school is a. she was the most brilliant woman i will ever know because she taught me that are speaking spanish and are being cuban did not make us any less black than her brothers and sisters. she taught us that all is meant that we just got dropped off a little earlier. that was my mom. [applause] okay, we got to go. so thank you. thank you all so much. i hope you all buy the book today. i will be around all day.

[applause] >> we need your support. thank you so much. spent a new maggie would be a tremendous hit with his audience. she is amazing, amazing. >> live today on c-span2, secretary of state john kerry speaks about u.s.-china relations from the johns hopkins school of advanced international studies. that's life at 9:30 a.m. eastern. later, a discussion on efforts to create an hpv vaccine. with a from representatives from two groups working towards the cause as well as dr. anthony fauci who heads the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases. that's hosted by the center for strategic and international studies. live coverage at 2 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> c-span2 providing live

coverage of the senate floor proceedings and key public policy events. and every weekend booktv now for 15 years the only television network devoted to nonfiction books and authors. c-span2 greater by the cable tv industry and brought to you as a public service by your local cable or satellite provider. watch us in hd, like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. >> throughout campaign 2014 c-span has brought you more than 130 candidate debates from across the country in races that will determine control of the next congress. tonight watched c-span's life election night coverage to see who wins, who loses, and which party will control the house and senate. coverage begins at 8 p.m. eastern with results and and analysis. he was the candidate victory and concession speeches and so the most closely watched senate races across the country throughout the night and into the morning. we want to hear from you with your calls, facebook comments and tweets. campaign 2014 election night coverage on c-span.

>> the 2015 c-span studentcam review competition is underway. open to all middle and high school students to create a 5-7 minute document on the theme the three branches and you. showing how policy, or law or action has affected you or your community. there are 200 cash prizes totaling $100,000. for the rest -- list of rules go to studentcam.org. >> next a discussion on the u.s. incarceration rates and criminal justice system. you will hear from a former san quentin warden, a criminal justice investigative journalist, and two ex-convicts, one of the whom is currently rug for public office in california. this is an hour and 20 minutes. [inaudible conversations]

>> good evening and welcome. welcome everyone. in particular it is your first visit to the california endowment center for public communities we will continue, first time. for those who are return visitors, welcome back. always glad to have you. my name is dr. robert ross, i'm the president and cal -- california endowment. this is a conversation about issues of the day, typically health and civic minded issues of the day. this particular conversation tonight is timely and compelling and powerful. this issue, the topic of this issue and the timing of it is interesting for me personally. they goes back 30 years for me when i was a practicing pediatrician in a clinic in

camden, new jersey, 1984 is when crack cocaine hit the streets of urban america. and when some evil genius invented crack cocaine, and it made cocaine, which is an intensely addictive, intensely euphoric short-acting drug, which was previously not be available to low-income people and low-income families because it was too expensive, but when crack was invented, the affordability of crack, cocaine, went down from $100 higher, for five bucks. and crack cocaine swept the nation and influence the neighborhood that i practiced in, seeing more premature babies and more infant mortality and more youth violence and youth homicides and assaults and sexually transmitted diseases,

and all kinds of things exploded and went through the roof. not just in camden, new jersey, but across major urban centers in america. but the reason i share that with you is because that was the very same time that gave us the war on drugs, the so-called war on drugs, as well as three strikes and you're out. as well as their zero-tolerance culture that has permeated our criminal justice system in our schools and law enforcement. and so here we are 30 years later and we still have this problem. so the conversation tonight is with some extraordinary experts, and i want to introduce the person who brings up a moderate in the panel, and that is the great visionary, extraordinary founder and director and publisher of zocalo public

square, a round of applause for this great civic leader, gregory rodriguez. [applause] >> , dr. ross. just briefly zocalo public square is an ideas exchange. our mission is to connect people to ideas and to each other. we partner with educational, cultural and philanthropic institutions as well as public agencies to present public events and to publish journalism daily, original journalism we syndicate to 150 media outlets throughout the country and the world including time.com, "washington post," spencer downing.com and "usa today." all out of her office in santa monica with 10 people. all our journalism which republish seven days a week is free. all our events are free. master we presented events in 30 venues in 15 cities. we invite you to join the zocalo

public square.org for what we think is a couple and intelligent idea to in southern california and be a more portly you might notice as the guys who put on events and to serve you want afterwards. we wanted not only to listen, we want you to engage with the speakers. we want you to form community that you minute have formed afterwards, right behind us in the courtyard. you can stand us on facebook and follow us on twitter at at the public square. we are using hashtag why prison. before our program because we also like to let you know a few upcoming events were having in los angeles. does corporate america know too much about you? okay. what could speed up traffic in l.a.? will young californians ever be able to retire? these are all yes no questions. will downtown l.a. rival the

westside? real big question of our time. if you haven't already please take a moment to silence your phone and the connected to its program is finished i hope you will join us to meet with each other in the cocoa. before i end, we are very happy that c-span is here recorded tonight's event to later play for national broadcast. now, i'm very happy to be introducing mr. tim golden. [applause] >> tim golden has worked as a journalist for nearly 30 years, primarily as an investigative reporter and foreign correspondent. his forthcoming book is about his of america's detention of terrorist suspects at guantánamo bay. is the managing editor for investigations and news at the marshall project, and not-for-profit nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering america's grim justice system. please give a warm welcome to

mr. tim golden. [applause] >> thank you very much. i'm a native californian and so i know that this is a place that prides itself on tolerance, putting a high tolerance for self-promotion. so i would like first to lean on the virtue to save the virtue to say the gadget of the virtue to save if you had if interest our subject tonight to make your way here through rush-hour traffic, i hope you all become readers of the marshall project when we launch in the fall. we will be delivering a steady diet of news, both the daily coverage and ambitious investigative reporting that will hopefully cast some new light on problems in the criminal justice system and also solutions. and after many years of relative paralysis, this is a time of a lot of policy experimentation in almost every facet of the system, so much so that it's hard not to be hopeful on some days that this system is starting to change in some pretty fundamental ways your but

today is not that day. old one of those days. this morning the big striking is in criminal justice was that the number of people incarcerated around the country exactly going up rather than down, which is bound the trendline in american prisons over the previous four years. so the idea that we had really turned the corner after three decades of a state-by-state incarceration rate was maybe overly optimistic. california was right in the center of this of course for the last few years it's been helping pull the national incorporation -- incarceration rate down, but this year as people have noted california's numbers were up and once again so goes the country. the number of people in federal prisons to declare for the first time in memory and that's perhaps the best news given the figure of prisons by bush have been rising much, much faster than that of the states over the last decade.

some states, new york, new jersey, hawaii were all down and have been steadily down for a decade to the point that they can claim the distinction of having an incarceration rate lower than cuba's, which is better than most of the country or at many of the big states. but overall things were bad on both ends. more people coming into the system and in the previous year, if you were getting out. tonight we have a great and rich panel to help us try to unpack that. and make some sense of it. susan burton lost her son in an accident when he was five and then spent the better part of two decades stuck in a criminal justice system before she made her way out in 1997. she's been focused on reentry efforts ever since, founding a new way of life reentry project,

which provides resources like housing and case management and legal services to people are trying to rebuild their lives after being incarcerated. jeanne whitford had a long career in criminal justice starting as a corrections officer in san quentin in 1970. she rose through the ranks to become the warden in 1999, and five years later was brought in to direct the california department of corrections and rehabilitation, and became the departments undersecretary the next year. she's worked as an advocate in opposition to the death penalty and she is now a senior fellow at the berkeley center for criminal justice. prophet walker was a different kind of insider in the system, having been sentenced to six years in prison for assault when he was 16. he helped start a two-year college degree program while he was incarcerated, which gave new opportunities to young inmates, and he's a founding member of

the anti-recidivism coalition which elgin people get a fresh start after incarceration, and was an important force in lobbying for changes in juvenile justice laws in california. he is currently running for the state assembly in the 64th district, which runs from compton wants to north long beach. and keramet reiter is an assistant professor in the department of criminology law and society at the mosque with university of california-irvine. her research focuses primarily on prisons, prisoners rights and the impact of prisons and punishment policy on individuals, communities and legal systems. she's also going to be the author of a forthcoming book about pelican bay. so welcome to all of you. [applause] >> just to start i would love it if you could give us a sense of what you made of the news today.

was the optimism misplaced that things were starting to change any fundamental way? >> i think for me what i begin to see was twofold. so there was some optimism that dwindled just because we want to see constant declining numbers, but i think there was a new optimism that arose to me which is targeting of the second strike within her to strike law. we built a huge campaign for the third strike with the three strikes law, but the second strike doubles the amount of time that people actually get once they commit a second strike bulletins, which was happened in california is that's not increased the length of time that each inmate is spending in our prison system. and so i think because of these

numbers will be able to open a dialogue on how do we no we know reform the second strike as well and continue to strike -- take these incremental steps to see reform. one of the things the numbers point out is that california and texas, largely impacted the overall percentage, right? if we can make real change within our policy and in our laws i think we'll see those numbers decline again. >> i think there was some good news in the numbers. as you mentioned new york continues their incarceration rate continues to go down and they've been at it for a long time. they are stretches the multifaceted and included sentencing reform. which california is just slowly doing. we need to do more of as you mentioned the second strike law. but there's been an initiative on the ballot, prop 47 which voters often opportunity to vote on. but over all i think we need to

look at states that have that kind of success like me your, no put some point have alleged looking at something overall because were just chipping away at a little at a time. we're still living in the right direction, realigned with a step in the right direction but many of the counties have not embraced the spirit of realignment which was not to just continue to encourage great people but to utilize the money the state is giving them. we need look at those counties that are doing well, like san francisco and some others, and really try to implement policies that hold the other counties accountable for using that fun in the way it was intended. >> you know, i think the polls have shown us that americans, the people, no longer want to see these numbers and these institutions built. they are looking at other ways

in order, to handle people with mental health issues and drug addictions which will drive the numbers in our prisons and in our jails. but i think that what we have done over the last three decades is really built this mass incarceration vehicle that is driven and driven and driven the numbers of men and women and children sucked into the system, and now we are realizing we no longer, that it's not working, it's broken, it's too costly. it's taking lives that we could handle differently. so that's where we've landed. but the system keeps churning away. and i am very happy to see a proposition in california like

proposition 47 that the people can go and cast their vote. and this machine will have to downsize. so i think that it's out of control irregardless what we the people are looking at and wanting for our communities. >> also i want to point out another nuance with these numbers, that's within the juvenile population. so while here in california we look at our juvenile facilities and we sit over all juvenile incarceration has gone down but i think that's somewhat of a misnomer because it actually increased the amount of -- which puts us back at his place of reforming policy and go back to a more rehabilitative model for juveniles, and counties taking on the task of --

>> maybe explain what direct files are the direct files are when juveniles are up against, are alleged of a crime, and instead of going through the juvenile process, they are directly filed to the adult court system. and then likely are convicted and sentenced to prison. and so that increases our prison population as well. i think we need to go back to what the premise of the juvenile justice system was meant, which was rehabilitation and focusing in on the mental health and trauma that children face as opposed to mass incarceration. >> i think when i look at these numbers, the academic of its import t to step back and take e long view and think about the fact that in making a u.n. a few hundred thousand people in prison entity with 1.5 million we will not see that decreased

overnight. we need -- we've seen incredible increases and what we saw today was a couple thousand numbers, i think it's 4000 roughly, more people in prison bishop and less gender doesn't begin to compare to what we are seeing in '80s where you would see tens of thousands of people increasing after year. it's important to keep that long perspective that were not seen the countryman increases that got us here, but we are also not seen the dramatic changes that are going to get us out of here. it's nice to people starting to brainstorm about how to get there. >> how do you think california has done at harvesting the lessons of other states and the programs that have worked in other places? >> how has california done -- the three strikes, juvenile without parole, so they can fund. but i think there's a better dialogue. jeanne pointed to in europe and the progress they're making on so many of the issues that are

in transit in california, thousands of people in long-term solitary confinement, really tough drug laws. new york as they progress and we're starting to build conversations in california. it would be nice to see california be the trendsetter it was in the '60s and '70s in terms of progressive policies. i don't think we are there yet but initiatives are putting us a step in the right direction i think. >> a be we should explain exactly what proposition 47 will do, for the kids. so proposition 47 will be on the california voter -- it's a california voter initiative, and it reduces six low-level felonies to misdemeanors. it will transfer $250 million a year out of the adult prison system into