the only banks or institution not only this country, but in this world, that actually threaten the financial system and the economy of the country. take anything else. if airlines failed, that would be bad, but he wouldn't take down the country. think about any number of things that would not grasp the global economy only this handful of too big to fail banks. there are about 6500 banks united states and we have seven bigger than 500 billion. if you think about it we have 38 larger and asset size and 50 billion. we are talking about a small percentage of our overall banking and finance community and it's true a large part of that actually does provide funding and finance for the real economy but too much of what the two big to fail banks do on wall street and what the financial reform law is targeted to regulating and raining and is speculation gambling and recklessness and that's what

caused the 2008 crisis the too big to fail banks and what enabled them to do that with deregulation. but wall street and its allies got rid of the laws the rules and even the cops on the wall street e. and i'd reached a crescendo in 2000. it took them about after 70 years think about this country knows how to control the finance sector and grow the real economy and grow the middle class. we did it for 70 years. and then deregulation came in reaching its height in 2000 on a bipartisan basis and seven years later we had the largest koreshan almost 80 years. >> host: are these banks paying since the financial crisis? we have seen the headlines over the years. they have accepted guilt for some circumstances, paying fines. just last week we had five banks admitting guilty to manipulating currency exchanges and together we are fined $2.5 billion. here's what the attorney attorney general had to say

loretta lynch. the cbc will pay considering the long-running and egregious nature of a anti-competitive conduct commensurate with the pervasive harm done and it should deter competitors in the future from chasing process without regard to fairness bareness the law or the public welfare. >> guest: loretta lynch is the new attorney general and we hope she will not continue the disreputable record of her predecessor. the justice department engaged in really sweetheart pr settlement and even this latest ones which frankly she's only been there a month. this was all done before she got there. she did the press conference but let's talk about what happened. so you had citigroup was fined last week $925 million or the department of justice and everyone of your viewers and you and i think that's a lot of money but think about this. the first three months of this quarter citigroup paid $17 billion. they are going to make over $60 billion this year and they

just got fined 925 million? that's not even going to get their attention. they did plead guilty finally eight years after the crisis for massive global criminal conspiracy and yet they structured the deal such that those criminal police had no consequences. when everyone of your viewers and you were right if we pled guilty to a crime we would have handcuffs on him we would probably go to jail. we wouldn't be allowed to vote again and we would never get a job again and there would be all sorts of consequences. did any of this happened these banks? in fact it was business as usual that there's actually more important point. people talk about since the financial crisis happened that financial crisis haven't the banks paid a lot of money and oh my gosh left shed a lot of tears for banks because regulation is costing them some money so they could be actually the rules of the road to protect the rest of the country from them and yes those regulations cost money but

what's so remarkable to me is that no one ever talks about the cost of the crisis to the american people. a study did -- better markets.com and its on our web site. we did this several years ago and when they looked at it we just look at what larger gdp loans in the show the crisis in 2008 is going to cost this country at least 12 $.8 trillion with a t, trillion. the dallas fed did a study of the cost of the crisis. their estimate is somewhere between eight and $14 trillion. the gao to the study. their study showed was going to be 13 to $15 trillion in the updated recently to show $22 trillion so let's talk about the cost to the country about crisis and let's not shed a lot of tears worrying about the two big to fail banks and what penalties they are paying remember for their crimes. nobody sits here today and worries about how bad it is on

people in prison who robbed banks because they got punishment for what they did. the banks on wall street a got slaps on the wrist mostly got a free pass and pr settlement that promote the interests of politicians not to justice and the rule of law with wall street. there's something else that's interesting which is on the cost of the crisis if you think about this in january of 2010 the youth unemployment rate in you talk about the announcement at rate numbers all the time and you have an informed viewership but think -- think about this. the youth section which is underemployed and unemployed the rate was almost 18%. that was 23 million americans were out of work about a year after the financial crash. that's the cause of the crisis and that is what we should be worrying about. >> host: let's get our viewers involved in the conversation. we are talking with kelleher president of better markets about wall street in reform efforts.

maria and westville new jersey you are up next maria, go ahead. >> caller: good morning greta and also tear gas. i it's time to give them all the dash let's start with the topic is likened to comment on the fact that the federal reserve which is the national bank is an international group of profit thanks. [inaudible] >> guest: you know the fed is called a lot of different things than they deserve a fair amount of criticism. i don't think they are being controlled by international interest. they are largely interests coincide with the financial industry and wall street. however we have to give credit where credit is due. the fed pre-crisis was an enabler of the crisis and frankly veiled miserably as a regulator. in the crisis happened they lead led in a way that was quite remarkable and in many ways help prevent a second great depression.

now better markets and we have been very critical of the terms and conditions under which they did that but the fact that they did that was incredibly helpful to the country. since then you have got phase three where what they called qb in zero interest rates. they have essentially try to provide liquidity and support to the economy to kind of repair the damage done by the too big to fail banks on wall street. our view is they haven't done their job well on the regulatory side. they need to be much tougher with the too big to fail banks. >> host: how can they be more tough? >> guest: for example one of the key parts of the financial reform law that's assigned to the fed is for them to put in place capital liquidity counterparty exposure rules all of which are designed to make the too big to fail banks actually safer and so that they have more capital so that they have to assume their own losses and they can shift their losses to the american people by requiring bailouts.

most importantly one of the most important powers given to the fed unprecedented power was that the fed is supposed to make sure that every too big to fail banks on wall street structures itself in a way that if it fails fails, what every other person and company in this country they would go into bankruptcy. the remarkable thing that doesn't get talked about much is there's only one industry in the entire country that violates the most basic runcible of capitalism and that his failure. god bless you. get an idea, get a company work your tail off and make a fortune. that's america and we want you to do that but on wall street if you are too big to fail bank and you do all that and you get wrecked was speculating with other people's money by the way and you fail you don't go to bankruptcy. if all into the comforting arms of the american taxpayer and that's wrong. they are the only one to do it. it's the fed's job to make sure that they can't do that and they

go into bankruptcy and they need to make that a reality. >> host: morgan virginia tom republican. hi tom. >> caller: hello. i agree with a number of your points but i have issues with the dodd-frank bill. and essentially the way real estate is done. i live on main street and i'm a real estate appraiser and during the collapse saw many of the regulations having the various elements of the real estate industry making decisions or making decisions that were profitable for themselves but not necessarily good for the economy. and many of the institutions that were making these decisions were quote following the law. they were following the law and yet you could see it was a huge train wreck. i see on many of these regulations right now in dodd-frank, my industry

appraisers figure after the collapse that at least people on main street the ability to evaluating properties that they are looking at buying and investing for individuals become important however my industry got so overregulated that approximately close to 30% of the people left the industry and they were all the young people median age in my industry is currently 59 and we were supposed to have been given independence and paid a better feed and yet yet quite comically the very first elements of dodd-frank when they were implemented ended up cutting our fees and placing a great deal of collocated overhead for us and now quite honestly real estate when i got into appraising there were the same -- everyone knew what the value of the property was and why do we need an appraiser?

now no one knows what the value of the property is even the appraiser because there's such a wide spread of value in neighborhoods and there is literally, i mean it's gotten a lot better but there have been literally chaos. just go tommy make a lot of really good points and you have been in the business long enough to know that when the sub-prime bubble was being inflated before 08 appraisals were won at the epicenter of one of the wrongdoing as were real estate agents as for these mortgage bills so-called originate to distribute mortgages. there was massive fraud criminality in those that nobody's where people who had no chance of repaying the loan were nonetheless given a big mortgage on a house that was appraised at 100% more than it was when it sold six, eight, 12 months prior to that so it's true the regulations are in place or some other regulations are in place. the law was passed to curb some of those excesses and abuses and

frankly outright illegal conduct conduct. in fact it's remarkable we have to put into a law they position this as bank should not lend money to people who can't pay them back. when you think about that, we needed a law for that. that's crazy, writes that that's because the incentive structure became upside down and giving loans and mortgages to people who couldn't pay it back actually paid these mortgage mills and ultimately the wall street tanked a lot of money when they securitize them. so it's important to remember that a the law try to target these different areas and i'm not saying the laws perfect. no blog created by our congress is perfect so and is not being implemented perfectly but it is trying to get at these high-risk behaviors, reduce the risk and across-the-board and sometimes it works better than a dozen other places. you are seeing an ad in your views reflect.com. >> host: buffalo new york next joseph and independent.

>> caller: i could fall into that category. i wasn't able to pay back the loan and then my roof started leaking and at that point i stopped making my mortgage payments because they wouldn't give me a home improvement loan. and it's probably because i couldn't afford to pay the loan back, because i wasn't making enough i didn't have enough finances in my regular income wasn't enough to get a loan. and now they have foreclosed on it and now i'm living at my moms house and this is house is about to be foreclosed on so i don't know what to do. just go joseph unfortunately your experience is all too common. the problem is that people are giving loans that probably shouldn't have been the first place but it's also important to remember that many americans who could afford a long and shouldn't have gotten mortgage did and yet they were hit by a tsunami of unemployment, the

wave of unemployment caused by the wall street crash which was caused by recklessness and speculation by these too big to fail banks that got bailed out why the american taxpayer in the government. unfortunately the american people were bailed out anywhere near the way that banks were bailed out and as a result we have historically high unemployment and other employment and of course when that happens people can afford to pay their mortgages. they can't afford to send their kids to college they can afford to retire. all those things happen and that's why the cause of the crisis is in the trillions of dollars. that's why it's really so important. it's people like you joseph and tens of millions of other people dislike you in this country, that's why we need financial reform in place. that's why we need to make sure these too big to fail banks can never do again to this country what they did in 08 and that means aggressively implementing financial reform and that's a better market doing it on behalf

of the american people. >> host: we have jenna democrat. you are on the air, go ahead. all right let's move on to darlene in rochester michigan a democrat. darlene. >> caller: hello, i was wondering what are your thoughts about transpacific partnership affecting the u.s. financial system and do you agree with senator elizabeth warren with regards to the tpp figure? >> guest: was a good question. trade is a hot-button issue and it always is for a lot of important reasons going back to the early 90s and that is who really benefits from these trade agreements. yes increased capital capital flows and the wall street financial banks often at the big beneficiaries. corporate america is often the big beneficiary. their massive questions about whether or not the american workers are beneficiary and those questions have been around for a long time.

frankly the record of trade deals like nafta and others really cause serious questions to be asked before we enter into a trade deal that recently and this is a new thing in this is what elizabeth warren is talking about. all of a sudden one of the things the big banks on wall street around the globe, the 18 to 20 local too big to fail banks are trying to use trade deals to essentially smuggle in deregulation provisions. it's bad enough that they are in washington beating the doors of people in congress and the regulators they in and day out to bend the rules towards wall street's way to get their wish list as we see too often happening. they also do it in the war in capitals and now what they are trying to do is do it in our trade agreements so the trade agreements have had problems about who really benefits and who really is harmed. we have this added couple of provisions that allow financial

regulation or deregulation or financial loss to be challenged and weakened through trade agreements. senator warren and senator sherrod brown and others in congress are fighting against it to make sure that these trade agreements can't be a trojan horse that attacks financial reform and let wall street go back on their run again and inflict this country with a second great depression we can't let that happen. >> host: we just heard from senator sanders announcing his bid for the presidency yesterday in vermont. he talks about billionaires in this country and responsibility they have paid how big of a role does wall street play in the 2015 campaign and his elizabeth warren the poster child for that effort? >> guest: well i think if you look at the polls they all show that the american people still correctly perceived wall street's too big to fail banks as a threat and they also

correctly understand that they have not been adequately regulated which to them means they are not protected. remember the american people suffered that unemployment. those 23 million individuals in january of 2010 were underemployed or unemployed keep in mind many heads of household you are talking tens of millions of americans impacted. they know what happened when wall street gets out of hand and isn't regulated properly. the american people the polls show kerry a lot about these issues so you are saying all the candidates interesting read even the republican candidates, ted cruz and others have talked about crony capitalism on wall street and the need to rein in recklessness on wall street. bernie sanders right -- was the recent and governor martin o'malley has spoken eloquently about these issues and strongly with clear ideas about how to deal with wall street and to her credit hillary clinton has been addressing these issues too. she is early in her campaign.

we believe it's going to be an acid test or secretary clinton when she spells out her policy with detailed exactly whose side she is on how she is going to protect main street concretely from the recklessness and speculation of wall street which as you know on this show covering the news has been all over the news. not only a secretary clinton but former president clinton and the foundation have received what appears to be incredibly significant amount for the financial industry. i think it's going to be important or secretary clinton to demonstrate early clearly and in detail how none of that is going to influence how she is going to do the job as president if she is elected and how she is really going to protect main street from wall street. >> host: we will go to texas cindy watching an independent. good morning cindy. >> caller: hello. years ago back in the 70s to

get credit you had to fill out an application so what you make you are not approved for this credit card or not approved for this credit. and then in the early 80s everyone was getting credit cards. they were mailing them for $5000 people could make the payments and they would file for bankruptcy. and then they would turn around and use credit cards again and file for bankruptcy and i'm sorry i'm having problems talking today. during the bank bailouts what did it take two years for bush to say he was the one that -- and blame obama for 10 years and none of them are doing their

jobs to correct that. >> host: are you talking about t.a.r.p.? >> caller: yes, maam. just go well first this bankruptcy issue it is true that there are abuses of credit cards and you are absolutely right that the underwriting standards of the banks where they actually do a credit check to see whether or not you have enough money coming in is enough to serve your debt would underwriting standards in this country have really gotten very poor particularly at the too big to fail banks. remember 6500 banks in this country come only 38 of them are above $50 billion. most of banks in this country community banks serving their local communities have good underwriting standards and good policies and procedures but there is this credit mail that creates these massive 10 million mailings of credit cards that have eroded the underwriting standards too often but another point of bankruptcy it's very important to show what the date of bankruptcy is. one third of bankruptcies arise

because to him pay medical bills. about one third arise because of unemployment and the percentage of bankruptcy that happen because of unemployment increase dramatic leap after the financial crisis -- crisis because unemployment increase dramatically because of the crash on wall street so in terms of the t.a.r.p. the 700 billion-dollar bailout of the big banks the terms and conditions under which that was employed were really questionable and i think have been questionable. the intent to prevent the collapse of the financial system i don't think is questionable and i have been on the show actually defending secretary geithner and the obama administration for what they did although not necessarily for how they did it. the benefits of the bailout were highly concentrated on wall street and it goes to a very interesting issues in the. too many people think and the policymaking circles of washington what's good for wall street is good for america.

we know that can be true for example between the great depression for 70 years afterwards. what was good for america was also good for wall street but we saw in 08 in the run-up to 08 in the bubble that what's good for wall street may be a disaster for america. it continues to this day as we see underwater homes long-term unemployment and the impact the ongoing massive impact of the economic costs so you are right it has to be paid to the people suffering the consequences of wall street's recklessness who are crying crocodile tears for the rules imposed on wall street so they can do it again. >> host: shreveport louisiana jay a republican. you are on the line with dennis kelleher with better business. >> caller: a question and then a question and/or comment. first, how much of the collapse

do you attribute to the appraised value of real property specifically residential housing collapse and? >> host: date we will take your question. guess galena was a was a fraudulently fueled sub-prime bubble in this country and this was just mortgages that would be bad but what we have is essentially this conveyor belt this financial conveyor belt in the country we have mortgages throughout this country that were often given to people who either couldn't pay them back or tricks and traps and them that were not disclosed to people so they were teaser rates that would explode in dublin rates, the interest rate to where people can afford them in the short-term often undisclosed rate we also had a massive

amount of fraud where many of the applications the information on it was changed after the fact the poor were news mortgage bills. once the products got to wall street that did securitization which is the attackers as individual mortgages into big uncles and then they sliced up the big bundles with different interest rates and then they sell them off to investors throughout the world in some of it they keep themselves. those are incredibly high-risk securities which unfortunately were given triple-a ratings by the rating agencies. not only did we have underwriting standards drop not only did we have appraisal standards drop, we had rating agency standards drop and then we have the standards across wall street drop in terms of creating these financial products which were essentially timebombs designed to blow up because the economic reality underpinning them just didn't exist. so much of it was real estate that was inflated overvalued

and oversold so when you look at the financial crisis how the bubble got inflated by all of these wrongful and reckless illegal conduct of praise real estate underpinned it real estate underpinned at all and ultimately got into the wall street financial engineering machine which acted as a conveyor belt to spread that risk throughout the entire financial system. that is why when the bubble burst the financial system itself was threatened with collapse because the too big to fail banks were going to bring it all down which is what precipitated the need for a rescue. >> host: we have a little over five minutes left. augusta georgia democrats tommy. hi tommy. >> caller: how are you all doing? thank you for taking my call. >> host: go ahead with your question or comment. >> caller: my question is what party calls for regulation and what party calls for deregulation and? that's all, thank you. yes it was a very good question

tommy. financial regulation shouldn't even be a partisan issue. frankly attacking the american people from a disastrous calamity by the economic records caused by 08 shouldn't be partisan. the 23 million americans who were underemployed in january of 2010 they were republicans, democrats democrats, independents independents, atheist, partisan independents atheists, partisans it didn't matter. economic records doesn't care about party affiliation in there for protecting this country from that shouldn't have anything to do with partisan politics. unfortunately the way the system in washington works is partisan politics and unfortunately the way partisan politics works is campaign finance too often so you have a massive amount of money coming from wall street flooding into washington d.c. both on the campaign finance side and the lobby side not to mention the pr and the rest of it.

so right now it breaks down really there are very few republicans who genuinely care about real financial reform. there is plenty to pay lipservice to it but not many that are serious about making it work. there are more democrats are think than there are republicans and the obama administration gets a lot of credit with a substantial opposition fighting hard day in and day out for financial reform. >> host: the "l.a. times" had the story recently a senate panel moves to weaken dodd-frank. the republican-controlled senate tickets for step towards fulfilling of promise about key parts of the 2010 dodd-frank law. what do they want to change? >> guest: is a good point and he gets back to tommy's question because it was voted on in committee on a straight partyline vote. 12 republicans in the senate banking committee voted for this deregulation bill. 10 democrats voted against it. it's unfortunate as almost every democrat said and it's a good example that the dysfunction of

washington there are some provisions in the bill that would get 80 or 90 votes in the united states senate passed overwhelmingly in the present would support them yet what happens time and time again is wall street's lobbyists get their special interest provisions stuck in these bills and they try, literally try and glom on so it on so it prevents the smart intelligent things that would get 80 or 90 votes done and that is what should happen in the country and what should happen in the senate. you have wall street special interest greece too often by highly paid lobbyist and so you have dysfunction and up with a 12-10 vote which means it may go to the senate. it's not likely to pass. what is good -- that is that the provisions won't pass. and until people start acting in a nonpartisan way for the best interest of the country to prevent a crash rather than worry about currying favor of delivering her wall street's lobbyists unfortunately we are going to see gridlock for far too long.

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>> >> if you lower your payments a little bit you could have kept your home and to keep making payments. one of the biggest failures of this administration. there has been many successes including dodd/frank but a failure was to rely on the mortgage programs that should have been up and running and then plays worried about people paying their mortgages on main street as much as the banks of all street. >> host: we have the independent line. >> caller: i have a couple of questions. are you familiar with 1987 when the nyse-listed dropped in 1508 points?

with quantitative easing in 2009 with that credit trillions of dollars given to wall street they gave it to them now 1% of everybody else's 6%. but if they lose the money they get to them back also the new bank of china and russia and india tried is trying to create a new world bank? >> guest: and if i have here another 48 hours i will get to that. there was a crash 1987 though one day crash. it is very controversial to benefited with qe but they cabiri was zero interest-rate there is also the point if the government indicates it will bailout to

act recklessly so they get into trouble they can get bailed out that is called the put. all of those are bad. many attempted to be addressed with dodd/frank some of which some are trying to get implemented and fighting to prevent from being rolled back. >> host: as the legislation makes its way through congress for the viewers who want to know better markets the.com also followed him on twitter. thank you very much. >> we're live at the museum of the national drug control policy director will be speaking at the safety and justice focusing on incarceration just getting under way on c-span2. >> we are thrilled to be one

of the partner institute with the mccarter foundation for i want to offer you our congratulations and welcome to washington d.c.. our role is to convene all the talent in this room and those who are receiving funding to the technical assistance providers who will support the journey to have better paper and more effective local criminal justice systems also to the strategic allies you are here today and will be battling this initiative the next couple of years. the challenge will help spark a dramatic change with local criminals across the country we're honored to be a part of that. we are broadcast live today on c-span2. if you would like to treat

-- tweet let them know they can see you live right now at this event. we are grateful to c-span2. julia is our first speaker sheikh works in this kit -- a city of chicago in the department of housing and as chief of staff to richard daley. she also served as president and chief executive officer and deputy administrator of the general services administration. please welcome her as she kicks off the program. [applause] >> take you to all of you i am president of the macarthur foundation one of

the largest philanthropies headquartered in chicago with offices in russia russia, mexico, india and of nigeria and we support organizations working in more than 50 countries to make the world a better place. today there is a growing consensus that our country need serious attention and a system of concern is level of incarceration and not only leads the world but conflicts with the bedrock of american ideals of fairness. thanks to each and every one of you for your interest in the issue and safety and justice challenge which is our attempt to address that we appreciate your thoughtful engagement which is the start of a concerted effort to change and improve power america thinks and uses its jails. and also c-span for covering

today's event of helping to draw attention to this issue. today we will announce publicly the 20 jurisdictions to receive funding through the safety and justice challenge. the collaboration that begins here is just as significant for macarthur as it is for you, our partners. we share your commitment at the local level and we stand ready to help every juncture along stowe way. it is not a quick fix it will be a long journey but it is helpful to remind ourselves of the bearings at the beginning. i will share the thinking that led us to criminal justice it relates to a dignity as an institution for the work we will to together. macarthur is now 40 years

old and around the world. i don't know how many of you have heard of the world to build it just and peaceful may be only if you listen to npr. [laughter] you may know about the genius grants for the macarthur fellowship for those who are exceptionally creative and the support for public broadcasting. these threats are central to our identity with the concern for peace a flourishing in farming, creativity, the public good and just as. our very first branch was to amnesty international. important signal at the beginning how we feel about rights and justice but since then we have worked to strengthen the system of international justice and test bed to decades to improve criminal-justice. we also worked in other

areas of social policy. in each area we have the ambitious goal not just to attack specific problems but encourage deep change in the complex system of governance and housing and education and health care to shape virtually everybody's life. those contribute to a stronger and fair and more democratic america that brought us to the justice system anti-lebanon. -- safety and justice challenge we know it is so central hall society regulates itself when the justice system fails it is safe to say virtually nothing else can succeed.

criminal-justice is real success. that is a harder question we began with the concern of the high rates of incarceration in america. i cannot add value to what would be said today except to say i am extremely grateful the magnitude of the problem is now truly well-known. i think it is enough to save we cannot be proud to have americans behind bars. rededicate far too many valuable resources to practices for whatever the merits they also can do tremendous harm to individuals and families and communities. we should do better. it is not a simple problem

that could just be wished away. the truth is that people do bad things to one another. they have to be punished whatever the views about incarceration is the end product of a complex set of actions, reactions in the system probably will have an impact of over incarceration in our country, we should start at the beginning in the local systems. in towns and suburbs safety comes first that is where we put the word in our name. safety is negotiable not just localities but civilization itself. the government that does not provide security loses legitimacy opening the door to fear that communities and freedom and prosperity are

not possible. from deterrence to policing to punishment all based on the imperative of equal rational treatment it is the indispensable treatment of a free society. with regards to safety we have a way to be optimistic we have made great strides with violent crime and property crime is all down dramatically. we are safer today than we were in the early '60s but every success has its shortcoming we may have passed the point of diminishing returns and there is a consensus the war on crime has damaged from our society. what do i mean? the american ideal places less emphasis on the

exercise to control power than the willing consent of the governed. participatory democracy depends on trust, legitimacy and the inherent justice of the social contact. that is why it was the second element. it must be perceived to be reasonable and fair to be effective for citizens to internalize. when the rule of law seems interested for a repressive the social contract falters and in many places america sees that process in action. they have studied the experience of communities as a regular part of life. they show how wide of the net the justice system is casting and in 1980 only 1%

of 18 through 23 rolls of self reported no criminal behavior were exposed to parts of the system. by 2002 it was 13% and net was 30 years ago. misdemeanor plea bargains created a whole generation of course, of the criminal record and many people were not serious criminals have the controlling effects of a criminal justice system. study show their profound leading to low levels of trust and a diminished sense three-quarters of the people surveyed agreed leaders care very little about people like me so they will be less likely to report broken street lights we have many people withdraw from society

who into the draw attention to themselves and this is the opposite of the civic engagement. so by its nature criminal-justice is extremely powerful. so with apprehension to incarceration as people have their rights curtailed it profoundly changes to individuals perceive themselves. if government seems to be capricious or dangerous people seem to be fully participating that if the system fails nothing else can succeed so now you see it is high-stakes that is our word challenge comes from.

how can work toward a criminal justice system while ensuring democratic accountability? in particular what we're all about, change the way jails are used and perceive so they don't undermine the credibility and respect for the justice system. incarceration is powerful but blunt instrument can be more surgical or fair? we don't underestimate the scale of this challenge. often encounters people at their worst but yet we're asking them to be at their best. for well conceived and executed culture that raises the levels of trust to reduce those individuals and society. with a system that is chronically underfunded optimally designed, a

subject of local politics and sometimes conflicting goals. it is a tall order but what we have seen in the proposal , and even those not in the final 20 there is a determination to make real and meaningful progress to innovate for communities the ordinary people can afford security. for further is proud to have found partners like you and we pledge ourselves to the task ahead it won't be easy but we are confident it is the right thing to do. before i turn the podium over the will introduce the jurisdictions i will applaud

you for the work you do every day but even more so for your aspiration to make that more accessible, accountable and in keeping with the democratic ideals. thank you so much. welcome. [applause] >> afternoon the director of the justice reform program at a macarthur foundation and. we have given you a picture of what brought us to the stage today and i want to thank you for joining us and for participating in the safety and justice challenge for i will go deeper into the nuts and bolts approach to think about the growth of incarceration in the united states we decide to focus on

local criminal justice. despite the growing national attention to the large numbers of americans significantly less attention has been paid to criminal-justice system's where primarily operate where incarceration begins 12 million local jail admissions every year. 20 times the number prison admissions equivalent to the population of los angeles and new york city combined. phreatophytes people in jail are legally presumed innocent awaiting trial or a plea negotiation. nearly 75 percent of the population of pretrial

detainee's r is in jail for nonviolent like drugs or violations of property 17 percent of serious mental health many are there because they cannot make bail. with a core principle of our work is concerned about the disparity how people of color are treated by the system. we knew reducing racial and ethnic disparities would be a core focus of the work. for a the safety and justice challenge announced last february. the reason we had confidence is we know there are promising studies out there all across the country to safely reduce their reliance on jail with the disproportionate impact of low in the comp individuals

and communities of color we set out to build a network of partners that were committed to local justice reform, the project's public safety to produce social outcome. when we announce the safety and justice challenge expected to hear from jurisdictions across the country to create meaningful criminal justice reform. we expect to show support and enthusiasm we were overwhelmed by the responses that we received. we had over 180 jurisdictions submit applications for 45 different states and territories. they exhibited a commitment to collaboration, understanding the need of a local

solution, motivation to redress racial fear disbanded deep commitment to local reform. with a team of reviewers we undertook the task to form a the safety and justice challenge and here are the 20 sites idaho, south carolina, cook county illinois, harris county texas, of los angeles, california, with his county ohio, north carolina mesa county colorado, milwaukee wisconsin oregon, new orleans' louisiana, new york new york, a palm beach county florida pending county's south dakota, philadelphia, pa. a rizona, missouri, shelby

county tenn., a spokane county washington. the jurisdictions include large cities to small localities like mesa county colorado and in south dakota. those capacities are from just over 200 beds or as many as 21,000. together they represent 11% of the nation's jail capacity it could impact a large segment of the of population and to demonstrate the alternative to incarceration that others could adopt and implement. geographically and with politics with the economic and social structure and how the jails are granicus --

governed. regardless of the starting point but to system's reform and to change the way the jails are used. and they represent over 42 million or 13% of the total population. they have very diverse capacities that gives you an idea how we spit -- picked small through the make a large jails for or all of our representative of what we see across the united states. as i mentioned we were gratified by the quality and volume of their response we received of jurisdictions across the country. the site selected as a nation's diversity to receive better leadership leadership, collaborative

capacity and to make change that is needed and that commitment jihadist is addressing racial and analysts expect -- that exist. also of the support of the of 171 who were not selected a leader committed to provide support to it is our aim to raise this as a safety and justice challenge as a national imperative in there are innovations out there that will help us reduce the misuse and overuse of jail. what will be accomplished together? in the next six months they will work in partnership with some of the leading criminal-justice organizations.

the city is a tutor of new york, a center of innovation , a justice management institute will partner and to create for end of molt more elective but with that disparity or usage there will propose with the alternatives to the incarceration as usual to be developed drafted by a large scale and to assess risk only when necessary. they will do all this while maintaining an emphasis on public safety. together this work will create a momentum for change on a national level. it is important to note many

of those jurisdictions have already made great strides of justice reform. we'll learn to expand on the progress we will turn to collaboration. with those partnerships among judges or prosecutors or defenders that our necessary for meaningful and lasting change but to be with the second round of funding we live for word to work with you to share the experience of never 20 selected jurisdictions and of those and represented by their teams please stand. [applause] congratulations so now we

will go a little deeper to what has been happening in our nation's jails. is my pleasure to introduce nicholas who joined in august 2013 and came to the foundation but he was previously with the is security workshop that this session of cruz is organizations offered to serve on the boards of the national council and though living cities at the center for working families. please join me to welcome neck to the podium.

[applause] >> this is the second to dais amazon to data first one i topple off backwards with my chair and i assume today's talk will be better than that. i am the director and i am thrilled to be here today. if i am honest with myself i am on struck by first the challenge that we have before us that you had before you because there is so much sadness is the opportunity that we have of

unprecedented national attention on the work we are called upon to do with the unprecedented opportunity to make the most. before i talk about the first challenger think it requires a brief digression about the organization that i run. founded in 1961, vera was developed in the united states as a solution to unnecessary detention in our jails 54 years ago. the story of the great one his money made money on cigarette rolling paper. of first guide was concerned of too many poor people in jail for too long just

because they had the inability to pay bail. the brooklyn house of detention the summer reading 10 months for a the case is to be educated mostly because they could not pay bail. so what vera did was devised an entirely different system. what we know is the release on recognizance but to look at family and individual and community time that you can assess and also with the coming court date and that was the case the experiment proved to be more effective

than bail. of course, what happened after that it formed the 1966 bail reform act which was the first reform system since the late 1700's. i tell the story not only because i am proud that i have toward knowledge that we at vera have to face a bittersweet recognition. the fact innovation did not win the day. the work that we did 1961 with the manhattan bail project almost never happened. to reach an amount the specifics of 700,000 people in jail today but we're also spending four times what we

spent but i have more to say on that. three out of five are there presumes innocence. en released that was invented without financial condition is less common now than at 25 years ago. there is a lot of work we need to do. what's we need to know from this document is called a the price of jail. we have learned we're spending a little bit more than we thought and that is part of the huge challenge that we have to undertake and what we need to solve because the cost of jail

more than the public realized and it is almost certainly higher than the 22 million figure i just gave you that one of the significant jail cost. vera conducted a survey and 35 responded and what we learned and 20% i'm sorry one quarter of the jurisdictions a 20% have a budget dedicated is outside of the jail budget and it is over 50 percent in another so legal judgments, health care capital costa your programming are not found in the correctional agency budget in various counties and cities. we have our work cut out for us and perhaps it is more

work than we thought. but i am quite confident we can do this. first as tupac said he said all eyes are upon me. this could be a worse stumble that i did off the dais this morning some time to assess the audience safety and justice challenge as traders i will bring up tupac. [laughter] so never before has so much attention and showered on those of us in this room who were dedicated to developing humane solutions to mass incarceration coming from people like grover norquist in rand paul and the cold

brothers and rick perry and eric holder and ralph reed and how hillary clinton put the last month when she kicked off her campaign with there first policy speech. >> there is something wrong when one-third of all black men face the prospect of prison in their lifetime. an estimated 1.5 million black men are missing from their families and communities because of incarceration or premature death it is time to change our approach to send the era of mass incarceration we need as a true national debate about how to reduce the prison population while keeping our communities safe and then the kickoff for her presidential campaign medal think there is anyone who is of veteran of this work would have put smart money on that ever happening.

here is the second point of this group has the potential to make good on a promise of smart an effective reduction of incarceration and different from hillary, you are not debating, you are doing this group has the potential of the degree of skepticism to say there is a lot of talk out there and not enough action. one example is albuquerque, new mexico and we touched upon it briefly. it is indicative of the ability counties have to reduce incarceration quickly so facing a federal lawsuit decided it needed to take the problem on headfirst it

created a commission to develop the emergency jail population management plan to contain 40 different initiatives including probation violation, using more citations and funding for misdemeanor arraignments for processing and the results were astounding and in just two years there was a 39% decline in the population. less than that take massachusetts the reduced the population by 30 percent in six years saving 60 million annually as a result. so the punchline is these counties and cities are nimble with many levers at

their disposal to safely reduce the jail population the judges and prosecutors and police have a lot of discretion to act and you are not sitting on a big stock a population serving long sentences that cannot move out quickly and to put into perspective what gatt new jersey or new york state that has been branded as the leaders of incarceration. each has reduced their population by 30 percent but that is over 15 years that is the rate of 2 percent per year so the smart money should be on cities and counties not just debate but backed but frankly the smart money is so thank you to macarthur colleagues and juliet.

woodstock about justice reinvestment to take what you spent on corrections to figure of how to reduce that then reinvest and to the things that help the communities to succeed that is another reason why this work is important and why you must succeed the reinvestment of jail savings helps communities to thrive as a better chance to succeed here at the local level than anywhere else. you don't have regional competition for savings. you don't have a debate in this state house several economic development and what to do if it is close there is notified. your constituents can benefit from the actions that you take not another

senator's constituents. and the leaders are closer to their communities they know how to best reallocate for positive purpose it is. before - - because they pay for those services they could read direct savings to meet the needs of your citizens. we can talk about smart investment it is hard to get it right but it can be done there are some obstacles to make sure it does. one final point is why the work is important it is not contained in the price of jails paul of us who have observed the events of the past few months have an understanding of the degree of poignancy.

it is important we bring it to the work that we do hear your path is not only to figure how to develop smart solutions to reduce population but to instill trust and confidence into the system so contrary to the news since ferguson or before that or even a cleveland entering into the department of justice decree the shooting unauthorized use of force with a criminal misgivings for those other other than police or community relations ask yourself those people whose jobs are lost from expenses pile up, children may end up in foster care because they could not afford jail they cannot afford to pay bail bail, does that have anything to do with the

uncertainty people have of the criminal-justice system and those that pay attention to their best interest? to their brothers and sisters and those of the missing black man like a cross the river or west garfield park, does the trust they have had anything to do with what has gone on with the past four decades and are we in a position to change that? the person who sees a sibling suffering from mental illness or substance abuse whether jail is a place for them to go or if there is a better place they can receive services to get a fresh start and in doing that if that instils trust

into the system and why do we pay with the results that we achieve and what we have struggled with that is the very foundation of why we are here today. there is a lot here. with the undeniable excitement so with that work to leave with a simple fact what you we're doing is exceedingly important for the country you're being watched by everyone including c-span2. [laughter]

and it matters not just in jurisdictions all over the country. as tupac says. all eyes are on you. [applause] >> our next speaker knows well the jails have on individuals and families the committee has been concerned about over incarceration joining us today is the executive director of bates and freedom coalition he was a district director from the tax is concerned -- delegation from the texas legislature and missionary in asia and europe.

[applause] . .

of our creator. so as national attention does focus more and more on the huge number of americans, state and federal prisons, not only that not enough attention is paid to our jail systems. you don't need to be educated anymore on the over rely ans on our local jails. a population that is over tripled in the last 45 years and expenditures are rising in keeping with that 12

million as we heard earlier. 12 millioned additions annually. and almost 20 times the number of the people that pass through the state in federal systems. this really is the core and the root of our incarceration and developments arise. and coming up so much focus is being placed and other admittedly needed places. this is really where our laser focus will need to lie. so my hometown is waco texas. it can be said that in the middle of delicate situations like we are observing there, some of the other place that's were mentioned by nick that may actually divert us away from this conversation. i believe it should attract attention and conversation in our focus to this

conversation of nationally. so this is a prime opportunity for us to zero our focus and to really investigate where are things going right and also where can things be adjusted. the prepurchase' of the local jails of course is to detain those that are awaiting court proceedings. those that are a dang tort public or who are a flight risk. jails have come to hold far, far more people involved in the two simple categories. they are often warehouses for low risk individuals too poor to post bail and too sick for the communities to deal. so my i actually was a therapist. i didn't mention that earlier but i have dealt quite a bit with mental eat will health issues and clients that are interacting formally or informally with the criminal justice system. and i have seen far too

often that the people that are really have their own personal and maybe psychiatric issues find themselves inadvertently dealing with a system that is not designed or maybe at the moment capable of appropriately handling them. so our system will protect public by separating dangerous offenders in society as large and will deter the crime. if we focus on the crime and punishment alone, we will miss the countless opportunities to break the vicious criminal psycheles that playing too many communities. when we carefully apply resources of root cause of criminal behavior. substance abuse. and mental health. child neglect and truancy. we will actually prevent some crimes before they happen. we can protect victims necessarily from that. and ultimately we can devote our limited resources to the

design purpose that the limited cells were designed to serve which is ultimately just to keep us safe from dangerous people right? so i do think that it is very important for to us point out that as we embark on the justice reform discussion we have to remember that victims are the ultimate those that ultimately suffer the motor so we must design to protect and remedy the damage done to victims first and not society at large but particularly to the victim themselves individually or in small communities and any reform conversation with a clear understand that can the local and the state police are our first responders. they put their lives on the line every single day. and we are thankful for the service they provide and

also deeply indebted to corrections officers for probation and parole officers across the country that also put themselves in harm's way, either in jails themselves or also out in the field. law enforcement and engage in partnerships with communities and the latest technology. to protect both the officers themselves and the public. public awareness community policing and faith-based programs will prove to be incredibly helpful to this enso in michigan governor snyder just recently offered remarks of a renewed focus and vision for criminal justice there. the state has an arrangement now and in 30 cities across the state to incorporate people of faith and particularly clergy to make

up what they refer to as a criminal incident intervener. so faith leaders are apart of the quick response teams that provide a calming influence in the midst of challenging circumstances. they also act as liaisons between the law enforcement and community. they are provided a specific training. to help to defuse the crisis and also houses of worship are holing community gatherings where law enforcement is invited in either to decimate the information on a regular basis or just simply to get to know each other. we also know that our federal and state laws are unwieldy unwieldy and out of date. there are codes today. you may or may not know this. the codes today is an i to accept adieu owe is punishable up to a year in

jail. do you have any inmates that are found guilty of engaging in dulz lately? and not to be out done reproach full language about the person that refused a dual. a six-month misdemeanor. you can. i will probably at some point hang it over my 7-year-old's head. should we challenge? what should we do if we turn it down? thankfully discussions are well underway right now nationally. and here in washington, d.c. and state capitals across the country to eliminate the redundant and outdated laws and to look at the penalties in place that are regularly enforced low left felonies we will review those to see if they will be misdemeanors and they will be reviewed to see if they can be civil and infraction that's do not have criminal imcages. so as we know before a

defendant goes to trial as we have discussed on the bail risk assessment tools will need to be implemented. they are communities in the country that do this. and courts that do this. it needs to be a widespread practice so that we can divert people away in the event of recoming sense so if we can identify those that are eligible for the pretrial supervision in the electronic monitoring. this is the dreb that we will need to go. thankfully we are seeing that more and more. that needs to be the norm rather than the exception. and it will need to be the practice being. jail sentences are imposed on those that would be held accountable in any other ways. to improve lives and to

prevent people from coming. designed for avoiding a criminal record if they complete the record. doing this will mach it easier as an employable citizen. and also more xh more widespread. are better quipped to deal with the substance and alcohol abuse. mental illness. again we are seeing the veterans courts coming up across the country. these are a great practices. because of the season judge. and experienced judge. and also defense attorneys that are also seasoned and in the law itself. actually we see far better results to this end. and for individual that's are convicted of a crime that do not go to prison. and ultimately technical

violations a cause of collar principles in the community's supervision and set specific parameters along the confinement for technical violations. and far, far more effective than an absolute revocation. and absolute confidence that will reach fairly and in a timely way, we will hold fast to the constitutional right to counsel. and the prosecutors and he did fence attorneys have to be well trained and practices in the latest developments and criminal law. there are far too many instances and innocent people convicted of crimes. and false accusiations and perjured testimony. effective council. and when guilty sentences are delivered incarceration is a critical role of our

criminal justice system. putting people behind bars is not always the answer. the time is now. you all have entered into this challenge for the very reason. you are trail blazeres to this end. and in texas the first gum judge that i worked for in law school after a trial, we where in a sentencing hearing. and found guilty. and the judge one of the finest men i have ever known actual other. a common practice would be to step off of the bench and to walk around in his robe he abld him a key. if you cuse use your time in in that case prison to rm

deyourself to become a productive citizen. lure return to this community as a constructive and contributing member. if you choose not to do that it's your decision. we know that criminals will be released after they complete the sentence. to be a productive member. instead the life of crime. and redemption is the heart of the faith-based programs across either jail visitation prison ministries for not just decades but actually ultimately the millennium across the world as christian communities have stepped into jails and prisons for forever. as we sat listening to nathan deal. justice reform issues and

efforts in metro georgia, the man that is was next to me leaned over and nudged me and said i am a graduate of the very program that the governor is describing. he went onto tell me that is he a minister. and he leads the chapter of the fellowship of christian athletes in north atlanta. and he reaches out to students to talk about his time in prison and the choice that's he has made. and the way he has turned his life around. all kinds of examples of individuals like that man have committed crimes crimes and turned their lives around and are in places of respect and influence in their communities. we can reform our criminal justice system so that we can have more and more success stories just like his. the best opportunity to secure communities is to secure the few of the children. we must find ways to divert juveniles away from criminal justice system. and we will need to accurately assess the risk

and the needs and treat the underlying causes of their behavior and invest in high quality community based interventions. as you all know. juvenile justice is largely local. we end up with systems all over the country. slightly different. and there are challenges that come in within that. there are strengths with that. and we are able to customize their interventions and communities that are all unique. and we have been able to assess different community assets that different immunity teedz may have that are different. and removing a juvenile offender from the home. community to place him on the residential facility would be a last resort. and absent from the schools and as a child influences the a billty. or likelihood of commiting crimes as an adult. diversion programs could result in a criminal record.

and community based programs are more effective and less expensive. many of you do not receive the most appropriate placement or the right type of treatment and the failed placements could be disruptive to the youth and contribute to additional misconduct. and can do more harm than good. so as the factors take their told in identifying underlying issues, we find that the treatment will be within their families and in their homes and schools and communities lastly. and the criminal justice system here. to punish the guilty. and offenderes to not reoffend. thank fleechl the state level and local level to be involved in the work on the policy level and the practice level it is from

city halls and state capitals and laws of congress right there that is unprecedented so i think that it is very safe to say that the change will happen. we are now in a place of what will that change be? how quickly will it happen? our justice system has to be designed in away that when it does engage it will maintain the ultimate liberty and is consistent with the law and order. and in so doing acknowledge every person in the justice system. and people are the trail blazeres to that end and for that i thank you. [applause]

come forward. thank you. it is my great pleasure and honor to introduce michael sworn in as director of the national drug control policy. on february 11 2015. previously he served as acting director and deputy director of the national drug control policy. he joined the office of national drug control policy as deputy director in november 2015. and he has more than two decades of experience. supporting the americans that have been affected by substance abuse. he has received numerous awards and honors for his participation in the field. he has also in long-term recovery from a substance abuse disorder celebrating 25 years of sobriety. [applause]

good afternoon everybody. it is exciting to be here. i think that many of us have been doing this for a long time. and waiting for moments like these. and i really want to thank the foundation for all of the work that they have been doing on criminal justice reform. and for a willingness to enter into the journey. and folks have talked about the today, this is really a remarkable moment in time. and not just in temps of resolution in the criminal justice system but the affordable care act as it relates to those with substance abuse and mental health disorders. i cannot remember a time that it has been cooler to be working in drug policy than right now as we think of the historic events before us and the justice reform bipartisan support

and all levels of government. i remain convinced from the draconian measures and addressing mass incarceration. and i this i that with bipartisan support. and commitment creativity and perseverance to be applied to the move mentment incarceration can become a reality. we cannot sure public safety. and brought together to find the solutions to the disturbing problem. and incarceration and race and disease. and this is no small untaking. have you been selected because mack earthy knows you are the best to take on this challenge. like you the administration is concerned over who is behind bars whether they belong there and how to make the justice system more fair and humane and cost

effective. the national drug control strategy is the policy. and drug policies are anchored in the science and recognize that's drug use is a public health concern. leveraging resources and coordinated manner to achieve the over arching goal in drug use and consequences and criminal justice reform is a critical platform of efforts in the drug policy. and drug policy is putting evidence against doing ma. and the health and concerns to use science to support our decision. and not locking people away because we are mad at them. because they have a substance abuse disorder but because they pose a threat to the safety of our community. for too long we have use this to address substance abuse orders. when science began to study addictive behaviors.

those were thought to be morally flawed and lacking in will power. they were bad people. and doing bad things. any discussion of substance abuse disorder was relevant dayinges to the shadows and steeped in stigma and discriminal nation. we use punitive rather than theraputic responses and the time that will treat this disorder as a chronic disease we know it to be diabetes and hypertension. and we would not allow them to spiral further into their illness without trying to assist them. and we can no longer respond to addiction in a punitive manner or wait for a run in with the law will provide an opportunity for intervention and treatment. this is my professional mission but also is part of my personal past. despite the fact that i exhibit the all of the classes i can risk factors for addiction. and unscreened and undiagnosed and untreated until my own insex with the criminal justice system encouraged me to seek care.

and unfortunately for many of my story my journey are not unique. and while our criminal justice system can and should play a critical role in diverting people from arrest and incarceration are health care and social service systems have to do better in early intervention and timely access to the care before someone's use puts them into contact with the law that is what ondcp is doing. moving this discussion front and center and bringing it into the light of day. and working on solutions. fortunately, ground breaking discoveries about the brain revolutionizing the disease of addiction. and expanded use of public health responses and not sole a public safety approach. federal legislative and policy objectives are in charge of sentencing. and providing solid alternatives for the individuals with nonviolent

drug and other offensives and the administration wants to make certain that the scarce resources are applied in the most effective manner and supporting alternatives to incarceration to mitigate risk of community safety and meet the justice based individuals and we are working to make sure that government based responses and interventions are the norm. and screening substance abuse disorders and effective treatment. medication assisted treatment. overdose prevention efforts and recovery support. and without these viable alternatives how do we expect anything to change? >> we joining you today in support of the mutual goal. diverting more people from the jails and prisons and towards community based solution that's will both hold them accountable and a you allow them to be with families live in communities and to be treat with the dignity, decency and respect. we would like nothing better than the substance abuse disorders to remain out of the system if at all possible.

and the primary. and the specialized health care programs will be providing the prehave nottive systems and treatment not just the criminal justice system. jails are a used to did he table the wrong individuals. poor disenfranchised from communities of color. and struggling with the disease. and it would be far better to identify those that need help earlier in the process and connect them with services for the individuals with substance use disorders using evidence based health folk us and screening tools and risk and needs assessments will be fully integrated into the criminal justice process. we should be screening people out and not in. we are trying to establish systems and processes to identify the needs of the community. the federal government plays role. we know that the local governments are the incubators of the innovation and effective strategies. we learn from you. he can permits. and leadership. creativity and determination to tackle head-on the

problems. and you are in a powerful position to turn the criminal justice system upside down and inside out. to make this effective and more importantly fair and compassionate. all of the best in charting the new course and i look forward to your work together. [applause] thank you so much director for your inspiring words and leadership on this issue. across the network we will carry forward the message of work that is underway. and as we know the intersection of substance abuse and mental health disorders is one that will you all face as a challenge in your jurisdiction. now let's celebrate. i am what is standing between you and fabulous reception next door to provide suspect tan ans from two difficult days ahead where will you hear a lot of

good information and have a very very challenging schedule. it is the safety and justice challenge so before you proceed to the reception there is a little bit of housekeeping. which have three bus as available this evening. and the elevators out of the conference center doors. and 6:45. and one at 7. 7:5. and each will carry 50 of you. other. and we are not encouraged by those what we ask they will be downstairs again. and if would you prefer to go elsewhere. back to the hotel so that we can be ready and travel schedules here. to begin the celebration.

we will invite to you the recemention next door. thank you. [applause]

this summer books this weekend we are live from book expo and america and showcases upcoming books and the beginning of june live for the "chicago tribune" lawrence wright and phone calls near the end of june. watch for

>> let me quickly introduce our panelists. tomorrow. gary trudeau will receive the george polk career award. the doonesbury comic strip has obtain add status avenue great american institution. for 45 years, he has spared no public figure or ill conceived policy in an approach of political come teary. and stands near ledged air eye cartoonists with the next panelist jewels pfeiffer at the end.

and jewels pfeiffer brilliantly probing iconic classic 42 years and author of the 35 books. written novels players. he received a george polk award in 19661. and he said to me the other minute that this was the first major award that he received. and it took colleagues in columbia university another 25 years to see the light and recognize him with a pulitzer prize. [applause] cutting a cross multiplech platforms for work to be found in the "new york times" permanent collection of the museum of modern art.

abu dhabi migrant camps and are eblz in syria guardian has characterized her as equal parts. borough and cirque de soleil. i would add to the mix. the senior white effort onion will not be with us. he got stuck in chicago where there is bad weather and problems with planes flying out. author. and all that i will say about him is that it is said that he wrote an article 1971 that interested a man called steve jobs in computers. i want to ask everybody to turn off their cell phones. it will be a q&a. and later on. thank you.

[applause] thank you. thank you all for being here, i am honored to be among the artists. i am a person with trouble drawing stick figures. but at least we have some of the best and the brightest and what is really a crucial moment in the history of free speech. once there were sensors and state laws and jailed. now we have murderers meeting after 12 people were murdered in paris. and i read yesterday that there are reply still in paris news rooms. so it makes it even more an

honor to be with the brave and talented and facing a different type of world i think. the first thing that i want to say is respect to all of them. george packer in the new yorker recently said that the problem of free speech is that it is hard self censorship is hitting the mute button is easy. and you not only need to be brave but you have to be smart and funny. that ain't easy. so i would like to start with the polk honoree. gary trudeau who had an honor of being when he started to write his cartoons. and he has done something in

response to charlie ebdo. and i this i that it is a brilliant slate of hand. pull the rug out from under these people. and job. gary could you walk us through what have you done? sure we will be back here? yeah. i suspect that you can all read that clearly enough. the problem that i have presented for us as americans cartoonists. at least in talking with my colleagues was that we were so ambivilent professionally. and don't really relate to the satire culture of the french and we don't really have a charlie hebdo in this country. so this is more of the world of edgy cartooning just being in alternative

newspapers his whole life. i had my career. that was in family newspapers. so i have a different set of constraints. and a different set of impair tifz. in talking with my colleagues. we agreed on a number of things. one obviously we are horrified by the murders. more so booze they were a pat of our small and global family of political cartoonists. secondly we could not identify with what they had done. and i will get to that in a moment. i will read the cartoon first. because this expressed finally. it took me weeks to figure out how to do this. we got. okay so at the top. mike is saying the murdered french cartoonist may have slipped but the creations live on. say bon jour to the adorable

panda and ronries and in the last panel you see the off stage voice. may i join. no put some clothes on. not hilarious but it was important for me to figure out how to honor the cartoonist without necessarily honoring the specifics of what they did. i would not have drawn mohammed. and now that, is not to say that i would stay away from the issue, for years have i written business lamb i can terrorists. and all the way to the guard for a while. and it is not that american cartoonists don't love the edgeness or the fight.

and doing battle in the name of thing that we think are important. it is just that the american tradition as was the french tradition at one time is always to punch up. not punch down. and the big colleagues of france made that they created a very insidious situation in which they actually caused mainstream muslim public in france to align itself with and sympathize with there is enormous sympathy in france for them. this is not a great accomplishment or to be applauded. this happened because the approach was one of the provocations and not challenging. not confrontation and not to start the dialogue and simply to provoke and to hurt. we do not have the same tradition. and jewels feels somewhat differently.

and speaking from the alternative world. i never saw myself as part of the alternative world. i was just looking for an outlet to express what liberals post mack carthy that was first a menment rights. and they went around to say what they had to say. on a specifically possibly dangerous level some small rooms and small bars. and big drinks. whether they felt brave. it felt like a dangerous time in the country. since i was unemployable and had nothing to lose could i

say whatever i damn pleased and felt giddy and excite about the doing that. what i feel about the cartoon then and now is um not so much on the political point at the moment. or something that is happening in the news. it is bringing along an audience that is thinking to move in a certain way, and teaching them by the method humor. panel by panel by panel how to think in a different way. and perspective and consider a different point of view. so it wasn't necessarily about slamming somebody over the head whether it was somebody that i hated like nixon or you know. someone else. it was making people think.

because most of our lives then and now have been brainwash and to try to cut into that point into the alternative view and to do this through humor which took away the defensiveness of people that were not about to allow the point of view to be attacked without getting defensive about it if you are funny they tend not to be offensive. so doing these thing and trying to turn it into a specific issue a week after another week. that is basically how i saw it. not democrats or republicans or this guy or that guy. but what the count reefs. what it had become. what it wasn't. and certainly isn't now.

>> what is was your reaction to the cartoon? >> i was on a personal level devastated. and cartoonists are a small global family. and though i did not know newest charlie hebdo cartoonists. i knew people that knew them. and after that i was angry at so many different people. it was a very complicated anger. anger at the murderers and angry in the prancing politicians from every repressive country in the world. every single country that spies on disdents from the u.s. to saudi arabia were using the murders of cartoonists that would have torn them a new one as away to post you're on their still warm bodies. i was angry on the crackdowns of free speech in france that happened after the cartoonists were murdered. and there was a parody cartoon of one of the covers that a young muslim in france was arrested for posting on facebook. i was angry at the americans

that cannot speak french americans do not learn other language that's are commenting on the cartoons and making seem like you know some regrettable choice businessmen with long, long careers and totalality of who they were as opposed to you know one regrettable choice out of a lifetime of thousands of cartoons. yeah i mean a lot of rage i would say would be my reaction. there is a question i meant to ask the three of you. is there something this question is for the each of you that made you an oppositional type of person growing up where you could see through the pie eight and it made you angry and it made you funny? jewels knows i like to blame him. his work was very

influential. and in my finding a career path. i can't blame him entirely. it is accidental. he have doing a strip as a sports strip. and i was scouted in the first six weeks that i was doing it. and offered my current job. the story that my kids hate on every level. i had not put in the 10,000 hours. i put in maybe 30. was given an opportunity, so i would have to put in the 10,000. i ended up putting in the 10,000. but it was yeah. yeah. after the fact. and i was making all of my mistakes and full public view. so jewels was very influential for a number of us. his was the first strip that i was aware of where the main poifbt the strip was about the idea