what human being. we are working with human beings. and i will tell you there are people that do not believe that. and if you don't understand it, talk to someone trying to get a job who spent maybe six months in prison or in some cases have never been to prison. folks, we have to understand this and we have to talk about it. we have to talk about the fact we are in the people business, not the inmate is a spirit let me go to actress briefly. july 1st, 1974. i don't think i'm that old peers in the state of ohio, today we have 27 present. 8300 people in prison in ohio. today there's 50,600 people in prison in ohio clear eyed about subset, the day i started during

my career as a teacher's aide there were 291 women incarcerated in the entire state of the ohio. today we have 4300. it has been a trend that is significant and if you think about the lowest crime rate, it is illogical. we've had some more current trends and our population commitment there down a bit overall peers 6% increase in a number -- i want to talk about women just a second. as a look at the trending of women, what do we know? it's hard to see this. we passed house bill 86 that has

caused a significant inmates as they passed the first year of our administration that basically said first-time nonviolent offenders should not be sent to prison. that's a remarkable and dramatic name. there is a 14 month consecutive reduction in the prison population. you can see the women as well, but it's gone up and now we see 23% of revenue see probation violators. what i want to talk about is this gap between the intake and the actual population. someone talked about a huge issue as length of stay. 2007 and it's important but all of our jurisdictions understand and look insider numbers. there was a decision by the supreme court called the foster

decision. what it says is previously for sentence has to go in the top range of the sentencing range there have to be a set of reasons documented and submitted. that was stricken down in 2007. we have seen a remarkable difference without any restriction to document the reason for the highest sentence we've seen since 2007 the impact of the decision in 6700 or bad because of the length of stay extending. the length of stay is predominantly with our most late security or felony in ohio. so as we take a look at metallica but the numbers and

looking at numbers it's really pretty darn important. if we identify the five most frequent, most serious offenses for which people are sent to and in ohio, and target either an opportunity or initiate. i think it is both. you can see consistency between males and females in terms of the top five. drug possession is the number one most serious offense for which people are sent to prison in ohio. 12.4 n. and females 21.5% of women, their most serious offense for which they are sent for prison mr. possession. you can see the following numbers on the sheet, on the screen. we take a look at as.

is it a problem oriented an opportunity? the opportunity for everyone in this room and i think are just a start about it earlier. everyone in this room is going to have to talk about this story and the story of your jurisdiction. i happen to be a church about three weeks ago on a tuesday night doing a criminal justice information piece which is interesting. the church was full. so we started out and i asked a couple of preliminary questions before we even started. the first question is how are we doing in the criminal justice business. i would suggest to you that is the question that we all like to ask us all the time. how are we doing and we have to be asking others. now i'd think because there's a few numbers for my own church they got some favorable ratings

because it was 52% doing okay. there were some personal issues. the second question is how many people in this room and it was -- we have them fill out a form. how many people believe the course in the path for criminal justice. 30% of the people, 30% of the people said we think we need to build more prisons to keep us safe. now if you look at who is coming to prison, i haven't shown that to them yet. he talked about the fact in ohio at least the national recidivism rate is 49.7 and ohio is 27.5 because our mission is to reduce recidivism and we go through that at the end of the night. there was one person in the entire church who ought to be

building more prisons. my point is that we all -- i told the rabbi is that i wish the walls in this arena were not down so that more and more people will hear this. this is why depend on you to talk about the truth about redoing. they can be more effectively handle in a community setting. the opportunity here in just a minute. the one thing about the governor is he's full of energy and he said true to his word. i set the thin, governor. i'm not going to build a new prison. our prison population parallels the same density. i'm not going to build another prison. we can't just let it treat people. people have addiction.

we increased 58 million new dollars inserted into the correction alliance. although it did increase 500 residential bad into probation improvement grants to give counties that had a team around the cause to come up with a plan to reduce their commitments to prison, keep community safer by putting people in evidence-based programs in the community. $50 billion of new money. the reason the opportunity looked at the largest counties in ohio, the five largest counties in ohio cardio bow, cleveland, cincinnati, columbus, franklin covered toledo and akron or dayton. we saw a 10% reduction in the

number of commitments over the last five years because we have a longer period of time. out of necessity with invested in it. the more rural counties do not have the money to do that. they have people that are at the dead. they are looking for options in the options have been the default tendency to prison and a 5% increase in those counties. i will tell you to provide local money to have the same kind of impact. a six-month sentence is a life sentence to many. if you don't believe it, ask someone who's trying to get a job after they have spent any time in the prison system.

i want you to talk just a minute about an opportunity and i know we're running short on time. you start out with a vision and mission and clarity around something that changes. in ohio in 2015, despite real bipartisan support for trying to make a change and the judges think tank of recorder now and i just need your help. despite that, there were 91 pieces of criminal justice legislation introduced in the state of ohio general assembly in 2015. 91. they kind of fall into one of three categories, don't they? either a new law, enhanced penalty for a mandatory sentence or all of the above.

we can never discount days. there is often an horrific event that has taken place that has caused this piece of legislation and the victims across the table from the legislators in this extraordinarily difficult to say no. over the years and over that time we've had a steady increase since 1975 and mandatory sentences and length of stay in fact misdemeanors becoming felonies. the afterwards undertaken and our work is to be done by office is a 26 person committee, 86 or legislators. the others are kind of a diverse group of people, including me that's talking about what makes sense to rewrite our entire criminal help in a setting that

focuses on evidence, that focuses on research in the best says in south carolina. take a look at what they extend and change the laws to ensure that those people that we are afraid of because they will hurt someone is rapidly secured and those people that we are just mad at them don't have any other alternatives, would build alternatives to deal with those folks. intervention and move. it's an important piece. we want to expand the opportunity. we want to get the judge in opportunity about mandatory sentences and we are opposing almost all mandatory sentences. with that judges make decisions. we have processes to make

decisions. but don't tie their hands and say they have to send someone to prison. the person comes them in the judge says i want to be helped and much like the drug courts we talk about are the veteran coarser mental health courts come in and enter into a program of diversion. they set specific times and goals than they do it and if they do it one of the greatest things. every time they do something good or bad, they are more compliant. they understand the plan. if they complete the program this felony conviction is the race. even though we need to ban the box universally named, that becomes a moot issue. we are proposing an extensive expansion of that.

all the jurisdictions that increase fast saw no increase in that behavior. currently ohio has a thousand dollars threshold for felony theft proposing an increase of 2500 hours and using the researchers said that the emotional tugs they had for proposing the increase. that's so important because of this. people get into trouble and continue to need to be worked with. probation can continue but it doesn't necessarily mean that it's a felony prison commitment. judicial discretion we talked about in the priority of treatment. a pretty controversial piece medicaid expansion. we were an early adopter with the greatest opportunity to make

a positive difference. most of my years i believe competing program had to be down inside a prison. if they didn't have enough time to complete the program they didn't put it in it. our folks coming in after some chill time credit, we have thousands and thousands of people. those people were not being touched in a suit that had the highest rate of addiction and mental health because historically we were not smart enough to understand that we have got to get these folks started. with medicaid expansion, we increased the number of people in addiction treatment by 50% inside prisons. we expended money with five regional contracts just like it's being done in prison.

they sign a waiver and the person treatment into the community. we are that we've given up on before. i was walking through the reception at the female prison and i love the programs. we have a reputed communities, the harmony project. we are scraping songster hospitals in africa with children dying and inmates thursday and they walk into a reception block and see female inmate to look like my granddaughter in some cases doing two or three months because of a six-month sentence for jail time and getting a life sentence, literally and thinking historically we've done nothing but those folks before. we are now. finally, in terms of this in the federal system for a long time

i'm going to mention it. july 1st of this year, the legislature said they trust what you're doing. i trust your recidivism rate of 27.5%. i trust the fact if you are were the national average would be returning 4302 a year. you've got great community support. full functioning reentry coalition doing unbelievable work. we are going to say that there is a pocket of people, i think it's maybe 2100 people that come into ohio that are nonviolent folks. if you can get them ready for treatment, without any discussion. so we are starting a treatment transfer where we get people out of recession and about seven days so they have their own

unique population, moving them to a different section totally focused by themselves, putting them through a minimum of four to six weeks of treatment readiness and moving them out into the community even if they've got a year sentence. folks, that is good and i'm proud of those in a part of the fact we are told for immigration units in ohio would've expected me to work work eight to 10 hours a day, family saturating, working outside the fence the community shelters and animal shelters and food pantry is advising them back. they are out of the community all the time. we are so proud of that and i'm proud of our recidivism rate. but we've got to stop the mass incarceration and we have some logic about her sentence he and i believe and we have to look at research like was done with the washington state policy journal november 2013th to take an analytical look on the effectiveness of criminal justice programs and what they basically said theoretically and

analytically is a look across the spectrum of this study is the community-based programs and one third of the cost of sending someone to prison. i just want to say that, you know, it's an honor and privilege to be here with you and it seems to me and i'm not sure you would express a warden to say this, but it seems to me that judges should not eat the primary referral of people who get treatment for their addiction. when we have a rotator cuff issue, we go to a doctor. the doctor refers us to a surgeon. the surgeon takes care of it and there's no stigma attached. think about your families. is that clear to all of our

communities in this country have a process )-right-paren no-space can take a child someplace and get treatment. and if they can, what kind of stigma is attached? we have to recognize these drugs in the current generation certainly different than when i was growing up are so strong an addict give that it's a different world than the old saying is just say no. that was several paying for a decade or more. it's awfully tough at this strain of drugs than i could with support and i couldn't agree more but i think about this. my whole mission besides hopefully turning folks around, i want to get rid of my budget. i want to get rid of this $1.6 billion budget and invest in people earlier in their lives. there's a lot of directors that want to do that and i will close with this.

don't settle for tinkering. i was at the last legislative hearing. i'm sick and tired of tinkering. it takes too long. we've got evidence out there. but it just takes too long and i know that my fellow correctional direct heirs feel the same way. i was telling this story earlier this morning. we have 20 state correctional direct or set of less than two months in her job. it's very, very difficult for them to lead when they are just trying to find and figure out and manage the system. but the true standards at all of us have to be leaders until a message that there's a better way. and we know that. we have seen it. evidence produced it and what that enough caring people to really carry this out.

let's don't let this gathering just let us feel good. i think three weeks ago in that church i felt pretty good. i'm not sure anything happen. but the talent and insight of the people in this, let's carry this message outside these walls could knock the walls down because the people don't know the truth and let people know the truth, they changed their minds. thank you. [applause] >> i'd be a crime to stumble through them.

>> i will repeat it. [inaudible] can you touch on how this is flowing through the federal system as well as they know what is for and what is not working. we have to question the flow, we have a great organization of the association of state correctional industry to. it is fascinating to know that we gather three times a year and is typically between 35 and four device together out of time. one would be the refuge of that environment. the focus of those two or three days isn't that to pass on best practices. in fact, i believe the issue of

recidivism started in a city at the end of 2011 and 50 out of 50 directors and quite frankly at the meeting i changed her mission to reduce recidivism of those we touch. i think there's a consistent movement. there's consistent training and that includes a federal bureau of prisons and i think we are singing a picture of bass track says as we meet. i think we have seen us a look at the attorney general's comment looks eight-man of restrictive housing. there's a lot of themes consistent with restrictive housing as there is of mass incarceration and treatment. they are seen this everywhere. i think there is a groundswell. i can't think of a single director of the united states of america that is not aligned with this philosophy for locking too

many people out. we will do the best we can. we also get his feet on the ground i think need to be out there has to tell the story in the public. the american civil liberties movement in my office talking about research is. i said listen, i'm sick and tired of the old warden here been publicized all the time about this mass incarceration. they are certainly willing to do it and i think we'll see a groundswell. i think it will depend on all of us. i think the federal system is going to be movement in the same direction as state system. all of us to a little bit different. we will learn even more.

>> i remember when i was prosecuting i would involve detention unaccountable facility and not in a state correctional facility. i am wondering if the statistics you all have been sharing are taken into account what is happening at the county level versus the state level as well. >> recidivism rate is not. there is a major record in medicaid signing up in county jails. we see more of god and we see some growth with that, but the recidivism rate does not encompass the locals. the red car was that. thank you very much.

[applause] >> thank you very much, director mohr. now i'd like to introduce our next panel and maybe ms. panelists rebecca ballis of the center for american progress and families and she will be joined by some graduate and families to talk a little bit about their experience from that perspective. >> just before we start, we are looking for attorney general sam allis is easier to please come backstage. >> can you guys hear me? fantastic. my name is rebecca.

i am the managing their at the center for american progress and i'm incredibly honored to be part of this conversation today. everyone in this audience is probably more familiar than they would like to be certain statistics and figures. for example, the united states has 5% of the worlds population. 25% of the world's prison population we are all familiar with 2.3 million americans in our nation's prison and jail than we are probably also increasingly familiar that one in three americans now have some type of criminal record. that's part of why i'm so excited to be part of the conversation happening this morning his father's facts and figures only tell part of the story and for us to really get a sense of what the impact of mass

incarceration and over criminalization has been in this country, we need to talk to the people impacted by those policies. of course it isn't just the individuals who have been sentenced to a crime. it is also their families and communities. i am incredibly excited to introduce the panel that is going to be speaking today. before i do that, i wanted to share one striking if not staggering statistic that the center for american progress recently brought to light which is in addition to all of those numbers have rattled off, it really helps to shine a light on the impact on families and how we really have reached a tipping point. we are now deployed where nearly half of children in this country have a parent with a criminal record. i will let that settle land as people think about that been the legacy of our nations failed experiments with mass incarceration and over

criminalization. with that, i'm pleased to introduce annemarie alber, assistant secretary of community corrections at the washington state department of corrections. she has really been a leader in washington state when it comes to alternative sentencing. and then we are also bringing into the conversation jerrod garrison from washington and he was incarcerated for a nonviolent offense that took him away from his family, including his daughter, kennedy who is also with us today to discuss the impact on her life. please join me in welcoming this fantastic panel. [applause] i want to start with you about some of the work you have been leading in washington state when it comes to alternatives. >> thank you.

washington state is 42nd in the status bar is incarceration, the way that mullah population and some of our partners and others dates. however at the same time in 2010, like many of us, we had increasing populations and significant issues with money and recession in state government and we started looking at pathways to figure out different alternatives to lessen the prison population. we have about 10% of our population in washington state is in the community in lieu of incarceration are on different forms of alternatives. so when you look at legislation that we could use to either have a judicial option for a judge can sentence someone, that means a family to community supervision in lieu of prison or

a confined population being able to look at folks a certain eligibility and release them up to a year early with supervision and with resources into the community and hopefully really try to impact has connections with family. so we wanted to decrease our prison population. we wanted to increase the amount of efficiencies that we can work with in collaboration with other state government, particularly social services a decrease in the number of redundancies, the number of appointments that the family members at odds with each other and the number of tests that they have to comply with. by becoming a little bit more efficient at streamlining, we are really able to increase the efficiencies and alignment between other social agencies and the department of corrections. the best way to really talk about it is to talk to somebody

like. and kennedy who lived through the experience. so while we started the program in washington state or family offenders, we've had about or hundreds if the completers through the program was a pretty conservative, pretty small program. the jerrod i'm happy to say is one of our participants in the family offender sentencing alternative. if you want to talk a little bit about the experience for you. >> first off i would like to thank you for how they met the special occasion today. i heard a lot of terms today was familiar with the most incarcerated. i have heard any of the terms at all. i don't have to do with any of that no more. what i do every day as i go to work and unsuccessful. i've got a house. i've got my daughter living with me full time. recidivism and all the staff, i'm not part of it.

i'm never going to do it again. [applause] i guess what i really think is key and i talk to people about it is the time leading up to applying for the program, if there's any fractions, minor, major u.n. eliminated from the program. so if you have 100 people, think of the infractions you don't have to deal with. even if two people are finally approved, think of all a distaff you're not going to have to deal with and all the fights, the tobacco, all that kind of stuff. the two years leading up to it i did the up to it i did the best i could and everything i did. i participated and went to school, went to college, graduated, work on a group where we been around washington didn't

build offices for the state agencies. all of those tools is picking up i put in my toolbox and when i laughed and i was out on the streets, it was normal to go back to work everyday. i get up at 5:00 in the morning until i'm gone at 5:00 in night and i learned while on the program. >> what was it like being a part and let us have liked to have them back in your life now? >> well, it is sort of tired because not having a father figure at all. >> is a good to have him home? do you make lies in having us able house is really beneficial. it's really helpful and i think him getting out earlier is

really helpful for that. >> well, we are glad to see him home with you. >> do you want to talk a little bit about how the program not just her peers you for relief, but maybe some of the things you have folks in this room take away and some of the reasons for the program is so successful for you. >> the program how it works is you can be released up to eight year early after sentence. they would really see one house arrest and you are still under supervision so you have to use many schedule we are going to be at. it's a really good safety blanket. a lot of people do their time in prison and get out and then they're right back to what they were doing a lot to celebrate there really appeared for me, my transition was guaranteed to be a successful transition because of the program. i have to check them every morning and i still see someone every week.

i knew that doc was right there, but it was good to get all my ducks in a row when i was done with them i could transition to a normal lifestyle right away. there is no end to time or i have to do the job. it was tardy in motion. >> talk a little bit is eligible for the program and how does that work and i really want to emphasize in cherokee says that many people in washington state there is no supervision for a number of nonviolent offenses. in a situation when a case comes through the wonderful management of susy looked out and the staff when i take a look at it to look at those persons, many of whom have supervision but somehow doubt it is really more a track is because i can't imagine trying to transition from the transition from an accursed array to position a community without any kind of assistance

or safety net. for the family offender sentencing alternative, especially folks who are going to have supervision they are able to have the safety net for the program and that really did benefit the transition of jerrod as well as many other people. so what we look for is almost any offender although we do have limitations on people with certain violent offenses and crimes against persons that are not eligible, but folks are interviewed it is the multidisciplinary group that goes over because we really teamed up with early children learning, department of social health services, a number of stakeholders and advocates that are really interested in the best and its related the department of corrections interested in looking at the best interest of the child. it was a learning time for us, but we look at the number of

criteria and with the resident and supports would be. sometimes we offer vouchers so we can transition somebody into a residence they may not have comment especially for the first few months or a year at release and we will find them out of those present. just like jerry said, is a virtual work release. >> can you talk a little bit more about some way program could work unification? >> there's a number of ways. some of the measures we had our performance options for the officers doing the work with people like jerry and ann kennedy will have increased case contact with families and collaterals. i'll do a lot of skill set and there's an expectation that there be a 20 minute family

dinner every night. there's the next attention there's 20 minutes of reading every day. when we talked for a legislative body in the corrections officers will do in kennedy is an avid reader that they'll talk with the children and say what is your favorite book this week or what books have you been reading but they will like to see if there's books by the bed said the bed so you know there's some collateral contact they are reading and the contact is happening. i know i'd struggle as a parent and so having when you are reentering the family again having people they are both from the department of corrections available with some resources really is helpful. >> you have a favorite book? >> no. >> too many books by the bag. make sure you guys have some things you would like to ask.

we have been any audience questions? >> this question -- if you could give us in one minute but the feeling was when your father was in prison and the difference in your life socially, schoolwide, professionally and how you thought yourself. >> it was hard because the house i was in wasn't really stable and the amount of school time i was able to attend wasn't really much. so the amount of friends i could make was really limited. so it was the most conversation i really had his candidate, why are you here are kennedy, why are you late all the time?

but the rarest one, kennedy, icu at recess, why are you in the library? >> how did you feel when your dad came back? >> i don't really know how i felt. you know how you can fill so many emotions at once that you don't know. if you play too many colors together it makes brown. >> she is 11. she is in and between her. >> most aren't really that nice.

>> a question over here. >> thank you also much for sharing. in particular want to go back to something jerry shared about the incentive structure while you were incarcerated to ultimately be able to participate in a program like this and what struck me was i believe what you said about at the end, very few of the community members on the inside guide to participate in the program. i want to hear more about capacity for something like this and especially expert patient management to have these opportunities and get to the reunification as you updated. >> if there was 100 people that applied, i don't know the real statistics, but a lot of people when they hear about the program

command to change their demeanor sprayed tear. i'm going to try and get this early release program. i don't know how many people get approved or whatever. i was saying there is that hope, the glimmer of being home with their daughter. that's going to change a lot for a lot of people. the last two years, everything i did worked out in the long run it was full circle. the positive program of doing not what the expert tatian. >> i guess i would add to that because we do have the capacity or the numbers but the targeted capacity when they blend the judicial branch with the prison option for the alternative. we are typically a little bit below what our target is for

participation but primarily because we are pretty conservative. we have a lot of pushback from the legislature from time to time about wine to expand because statistics are so good and you can see the success of the program in so many ways that there's interest in expanding it. i think that we have been pretty stringent and a little bit conservative and wanted to maintain the integrity of the program and really selecting families with the best best interest of the children and have those services. it is much sought after, the much more conservatively given out option. >> you've got time for one more question. >> my question is for resources and for actual implementation,

individual selected from the program aren't necessarily eligible term of community supervision. so who provides the service when you talked about checking in on a weekly basis, are you checking in with the probation office? >> actually when i think about it, there's only so many signs of people they can supervise. and they also have four or five people because they spend so much time with each person to make sure they are successful. >> garrett is absolutely right. one of the things we did in the alternative for the prison portion is decreasing the assistant time that we were able to shift funds into communities to pay for supervision and then work with our partners and other state agencies to contribute training and resources.

so there is no actual funding that had to come for the alternative did it was just reinvestment of sorts. >> please join me in thanking our panel. [applause] and i believe a break may be coming up. we are skipping the break. i've given you false hope for a break. >> as i said earlier, there are refreshments available in nature yam. thank you very much to your back and chorus to the assistant secretary at the garrett kennedy for opening up and sharing your story with us. we are now going to have a little bit of a switch. we are going to the next panel discussion is presented by we call it the attorney general's is, tough and smart approaches to public safety.

so we have witnessed the attorney general for the state of florida, sam rowlands and the attorney general for the state of maryland, brien frosh. and we invite mark levin from right on crime who will moderate this next panel. [inaudible] we will give them a moment and get started with the last panel -- next panel. thank you.

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] found that [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> do you want me to introduce the speakers? sometimes you say people need no introduction, which certainly would be true as well. it is really a great honor to meet you at two attorney

general's. i think one of the most exciting things we've seen in the area of criminal justice over the last few years as more and more prosecutors, one is that theaters, sheriffs and in this case attorney general's model that interested and engaged, but really taken such positive steps in the area of mental justice reform. we have a democrat and republican here which is also the bipartisan nature of this and so many issues are part of sin. i wanted to pose a number of questions here today and we will hopefully have time to hear from those of you in the audience about some different areas of criminal justice were one or both of you have really made a positive difference in your state. first of all i know we heard earlier to tell you about justice or invest it, daily driven process gone on in more than two thirds of states, what programs are what dan and whether and what the various outcomes our brains victims

advocates, judges, expert to look at the data [inaudible conversations] highlight and georgia has gone through the process was incredibly successful dating back a few years ago and subsequent legislative session. and now it is a process which are leading the way along with the attorney general. i want to turn first to you if you might talk about what's going on now in that regard. we actually use georgia as a model because it's been such good work. three years ago maryland kicked off a series of efforts. we decriminalized small amounts of marijuana. if you have less than 10 grams of marijuana, the first time is

not a criminal offense. that relates to about 31,000 arrests per year. so it took a huge load for we believe going forward it will take a huge load off the criminal justice system. we have this year as a result of a task force put together in the past year series of recommendations and legislation making their way through the general assembly and i think there is general optimism which encompasses initiatives that will pass. it is sponsored by the governor, by myself, by prosecutors, by the public defender and it does a number of different names. it revises drug possession

penalties downward for drugs other than marijuana it does across the board reductions in penalties and minimize prison time and incarceration. it also requires for folks who have drug addicted problems prompt placement and residential treatment that with additional money available instead of sending people to jail, they will be converted to get your it eliminates the disparities in sentencing between crack and. it raises the felony theft threshold and the people with the value of goods don't end up spending time -- additional time in jail, don't get québec to a

felony is. it expands and present good behavior program and incentive credits. so if you are in prison and you are doing what you are supposed to be doing, you have the opportunity to earn time or credits that would take you out earlier. we passed last year legislation that created a safety valve for mandatory minimum sentences. an applied as late and it allowed people who are the subject of mandatory minimum sentences to get the sentences reviewed a three-judge panel. this year's legislation is going to apply that rule much of actively so folks who are now in jail can get those reviews. it expands the alternatives to incarceration in sentencing

guidelines and includes suspended sentences in calculating the guideline compliance that is important in keeping prison time down. the legislation also identifies best practices and alternative dispute resolutions. we've had great success in the full arena. we are going to try to apply that to the criminal arena. sorry i am going on so long. it is a multifaceted approach. we are going to try to put together a validated risk and needs assessment tool to determine supervision models when people were produced and used swift and certain proportion of sanctions for violations of probation that wrote the bit is i think nine other things this legislation does. it is a broad based and holistic

or kirsch to alternatives to sending people are mocking him up. >> in a talk about george's experience? >> candidate i will probably be really sure if this question because we either already heard from judge fox and he was the co-author of a panel. i would certainly say that you're a social good to list collaborative "-end-quotes transparent nature. when you aclu and the tea party both a member, you are able to come to a discussion that create occurred to which political aftermath, which was alluded to earlier. we've done a bunch of those things could have also spent a lot of time that is progrowth and probation. are now at a point where if there was a drug over at years,

there needs to be a process to determine whether the individual has already served too much time and should be released. but this year's legislation if they serve x number of years they have the automatic right for a hearing to be released from prison because as brien said he got to go richer actively back or you are only solving a small piece of the problematic time. >> one of the other issues that they know you made a high priority with a variety of forms of victim services, compensation sometimes in texas where the victim's conversation time. obviously the first is the defender could pay restitution which of course maybe they can do it. but otherwise as a backstop we had the crab fund. they need more services or other types of crime.

i wonder if you could touch him a little bit of what you have done in that area. .. to figure out the senses you need to take extra time to figure out how to help of the victims. let's face it, for too long that

was last on the list of things to do and it's been moved considerably up. many of our district attorneys have specific staff that are full-time specific to that issue. >> did you want to add anything? either different states, the roles can differ as far as whether the attorney general is involved or not. >> we do have a person or office works full-time on a sisters victims and on policy for victims of services. as sam said it for too long has been at the back and. the legislation that we've got this year also focuses on services. i will say one of the problems, we want to make sure victims get restitution. one of the things that i think has contributed to the large number of our folks in prison in maryland and across the country is the adding of fees to the sentences. there was an article in the "washington post" about a woman

who had been sentenced as a juvenile detention, managed to get her ged, got out of the detention. she had no family. found herself a job, gainfully employed and yet was getting yanked back to court weekly almost, or once a month because she was unable to pay the four or $500 that she had accumulated in fines and fees, apart from restitution. she was giving pulled back by the court to account for the fact that she could not afford to pay these monies. that's very, very serious problem. she was in danger of losing her job because although she was performing well at work who's having to take time to go back to account for these fees spirit sort of a different question but i think it's worth mentioning to the extent we can.

for too long to answer with a whip of the inmates, let them get their ged, but that's a puny issue. what we actually do in georgia is we have the ability through legislation to have charter schools in the prisons, both the youth and adult prisons. but governor went up to a superintendent and set a want you to retire from your position and i'm going to make you a vice commissioner for corrections. is in charge of the program to make sure this educational programming. another thing we do in addition to not only giving them a ged at giving them classes and having them walk out wher with it and a good paying job rather than a minimal paying job is we now have a system where light in our technical colleges we have a shortage of welders. we have a shortage of plumbers. god forbid if you need a plumber because they charge enough. in our technical colleges, if

you go for a welding degrade its 100% paid under the states program. we are doing the same program in the prisons so now we have these folks who are released from prison with a welders degree where they're going to be making more than my son who got up with a journalism degree. so not only are you helping those that have good behavior in the prison system, but you are giving them the ability to have a really good paying job. >> one of the things we did at texas was on occupational licensing to say they could get a provisional license to go into many of these occupations if they would be disqualified otherwise because of the conviction. the other interesting thing is on the vines, one of the things we want to see his discharge people to committee service. prioritized the victim restitution. those are excellent points. the charter school model is great. we've seen in juvenile detention with a school district have to

provide the teachers they often send the went over the want to get rid of to juvenile detention. having the leadership within the campus is important. one of the other issues i wanted to turn to is eviction because of something we saw in new hampshire. a huge issue of opioid abuse came to light during the primary on both republican at the democratic side, and both of you have been involved in trying to combat addiction whether it's dealing with pill mills or making sure that treatment is available. we've seen a number of states, for example, nonnarcotic treatment for opioid things to basically blocks the receptors in the brain that trigger that craving. also good samaritan laws and other things. if you could touch on a little what you been involved with both not just as attorney general but as a legislator in dealing with addiction. >> sure. first, i don't know how i apologize if somebody has put in context already been tried to do that.

surprised that there would has plummeted over the past several decades. -- the price of heroin. in the '80s and was 1200 program. is now down around $400 per gram. the purity of heroin that's on the street has tripled. and folks who receive prescriptions for opioid medication often find that they become addicted and can't get off it, turned to heroin because it's much cheaper alternative. from a law enforcement perspective, maryland joined a task force that runs from our state all the way up to the state of me but i'm not sure we have made it quite down to georgia yet, but the folks who are trafficking in heroin don't respect state boundaries. we are the attorneys general from maryland to maine are able to share information.

and we think do a more effective job of addressing heroin trafficking. at the same time you have to address the drug treatment problems that arise from heroin use, from opioid abuse. and one of the things that is making its way through our general assembly this year is greater input into the prescription drug monitoring program that is run by our state. new york i think is done an excellent job. they require the prescription. if you're writing a prescription for opioid medication has to be done electronically. nobody can stick a prescription pad and forge one. in maryland we hope to get to the programmer time somebody prescribes and opioid medication it will be in our database, a

doctor can check to see whether the patient has been to three other doctors before, been turned down, gotten a prescription and help doctors make better choices when they are prescribing opioid medication but finally i guess i would say like all of attorneys general, we have a medicaid fraud unit that looks at doctors who are overprescribing, looks at pill mills, looks to see if the rate of prescription of opioid medication is applied for one particular practice that it raises suspicion that either fraud in terms of medicaid reimbursement and/or criminal activity. >> so in 2012 we wrote a bill to go after the pill mills. well, actually rewrote it in 11. it got passed in 12. like anything else there's an education process before you can pass the legislation.

florida has mayors and 11 because it is florida passed theirs, folks that were at, i think at the time florida had something like 95 of the top 100 doctors are prescribing opioids and they're just were not that many wrecks on 95 for i-4. solicitor's florida passed the bill they started moving to south georgia. and my favorite was "the wall street journal" story writer for legislative session where it used car lot dealer talk with such pride i had immediately moved the facility into georgia to sell these drugs because you can imagine a used car lot but he knew all about oxycontin. we passed a bill, had a huge effect. we've got up come in one year we went from about 40 clinics, that's not the right word, charlatans, to about 125. we are now clearly back closer to the original number with the

pill mills but we did see a significant uptick in the cost of the bills. cell oxycontin hydrocodone senator cummings to about $30 a pill on the black market in contrast as brian talked about, heroin is $10. so that's created a huge, huge problem in that regard. additionally, a jesus do programs for each other. i always provide attribution, -- ag's -- to perform at kentucky ag started going to schools to talk about prescription drug abuse. so we took jack's program and that added something to it which was the psa contest, 30-second psa from a mentor level. so i go into anywhere from 30-50 schools every fall and i bring with me local accountability for judges, sometimes the sheer for other law enforcement.

more importantly i bring with me a girl or boy who is about 22, 23 who is a recovering addict so that there is a mentor level for them to the dangers of how addictive these drugs are and how hard it is to get off the drug. if i walk into high school and start talking to kids, they are story. fmi 22 year-old with me who takes the majority of the time, they are paying attention to, in fact, i frankly prefer to have a female speaker because with a female speaker a bunch of the girls will immediately go up to her after the session either disclosed that there in recovered or the need to go into recovery. the boys just generally are not that bright at the age to go up to avoid. so again a further benefit from federal speakers. it's been very well received. it's an iterative process. when you go into school and say you want to talk about drugs, you are waiting for the phone to hang up. but the more successfully kids

and with the growth of accountability courts, it's easy for me to get into the schools. if we could play one of the winning videos from our contest. >> it's okay. don't worry. just grab the pills and go. know what is going to notice that they are gone. >> besides, a few little pills can't hurt, right? >> so that was the winning video from 2014, and i have an association with the georgia association of broadcasters and one of the army distribution associations. they pay to have the winning video shown on tv for three

months after our contest ask of the kids can get to see their video shown all over the state on nbc, abc, cbs, et cetera. at the whole idea is to provide that education. would also give them a check, frankly. but often can't get a check but the medical association of georgia, the georgia pharmacy association helped me in that effort. the whole idea is to teach these kids have dangers of the drugs are. we also have a 911 bill that you just mentioned. so for instance, if these kids were at a party and someone falls to the floor, many times the kids will think it's okay, they are sleeping. they will sleep it off. once you get regurgitation, it then stops oxygen to the brain. that's called death. so we tell these kids you call 911.

if you're the person who calls and the person they think is having the overdose, there will be no arrest unless the person who called was a dealer. short of a dealer there is automatic amnesty, 100% amnesty. also relates to alcohol. so we now have the same scenario at our college campuses, for instance. so the whole idea is we are saying you don't need to go to your friend's funeral. let's have been get the narcotic antagonist and let's have her life saved. so we now have a whole bunch of shears and police departments that just as they carry ip banned, they carry narcan which is a nasal spray so that when they come to the call they can administer the spray to stop, to start the reversal of the narcotic to once again save these kids lives. >> that's terrific. he mentioned accountability courts under know that something both of you have in your states whether it's drug courts, mental health courts, veterans courts.

georgia has expanded them greatly. did you want to read anything about that? >> prior to being ag i was a county executive our county chairman, a county of about 700,000 folks. and before this was, before we talked to the pew and vga my county had a dui court pick my county had a drug corporate my county had a juvenile drug court. and for a couple of us that have it, you saw the game. you saw the benefit. and then, of course, they became statewide and our governors put in a whole bunch of money. millions of dollars of you. one thing that was interesting that wasn't mentioned, so how they get judges to agree to the hard work that it takes have an accountability court? let's face it, you expect failure. you expect in an 18 month program, it takes additional time for the court to have these

cases in front of them. so last year the judges were requesting a pay raise. so what the governor did is he said that if you're judicial district has an accountability court, each judge will get an extra $6000. if your server doesn't have an accountability court, say goodbye to the six grand. it worked. spent let me turn to you and also since you mentioned juvenile drug courts, georgia did a bill in 2013 reserving state juvenile custody for those violent and serious. and maryland passed a law is used before 33 offenses, kids 14-17 for automatically tried as adults after this bill in 2015 that's discretionary. i wanted to quote see which might add about the problem on

juvenile courts as well. >> all of the problems related to incarceration apply with even greater force to juveniles. in maryland i think we've reached a point where there's general agreement on the. if i can digress and tell you a story. there's a crew team and they've got big guys but they sting. they lose every race. the coach finally gets fed up and he pulls the assistant coach aside and says look, i want you to go over and see what harvard is doing. why do we keep losing these guys? the coach heights god bless comp watches, comes back and reports to the head coach. coach, i've got it figured out. at harvard they've got eight guys rolling and one guy yelling. and now we -- [laughter] we i think are moving to get in the right direction. republicans and democrats on all

of these justice issues and especially with respect to juveniles are headed in the right direction but we had controversy after controversy through the '80s, 90s about should so and go straight to adult court if they committed a serious offense. we still have juvenile life without parole in maryland. but come africa i think that's a mistake but i think we do have a general consensus that for most juvenile offenses a community setting is the appropriate place when we send the kids to a locked facility, they learn how to be criminals more quickly come and end up being in trouble for the rest of their lives. we are i think living in the right direction. we still have a very long way to

go spent another issue is pretrial justice. over half the people in our county jails or city just and there's been lot of issues in baltimore city jail, but over half the people are awaiting trial and people often lose their jobs and so forth. even if they're ultimately never convicted of anything and also there's there is issues with not having prompt representation. i've been interested in your thoughts on how we can address that. >> when i was in the maryland senate i was chairman of the judicial proceedings committee, tried to get reform of maryland's pretrial justice system and failed. it's wasteful and inefficient system. there were i think a couple of months ago somebody looked at the baltimore city jail and founder over 100 people who are incarcerated or waiting trial

because they could make bond of $100. a money bill system discriminates against poor people. it fails to take into account the most important criteria, the most important things we want to know when we think about detaining someone before trial is the person likely to show up for trial. number one. number two, is the person going to offend while he, and i say he advice of the compass almost always see, while he is out if he gets bail? what we know, the arnold foundation has done i think great work on this, look at, this is an excellent way of using data, good data, elected over 1.5 million cases and to try to determine what would be predicted of whether someone would either violate or offend while out on bail and/or would show up for trial.

they found that doctors are not what you might think, what judges think. he lives with his mother. sure, he's going to show up. he's got a job. that means he will be okay. the things that determined that are predictive of those two things are more likely has the person cared a violent offense in the past? has the person ever skipped bail before? been charged with something and failed to show? things like that. that are i think nine different factors that our objective. you don't need long cross-examination. it's very simple. those are things that courts ought to employ and determine whether or not told somebody over for trial and not the subjective determinations that most judges make on a daily basis. >> do we have time to take a

couple questions in the audience what is going to talk about human trafficking and rethink and some other things but i would love to throw it open so we can get the audience any question but otherwise we can proceed towards one of the two topics i mentioned. we have a question back there. >> i'm lisa. i'm with family offenders alternatives graduate. i just want to touch base with the education in the prisons. which we can appreciate the trade schools going to. however, hasn't georgia done anything for when they are released? you set them up with employment backs because per experience, even if you have the certificates and how this knowledge, society as a whole has a hard time accepting felons to be employed or even find safe

housing, which i validate all their feelings but everybody is cautious. what hasn't georgia done to help them find in full employment? >> i'm going to give you two answers. in the traditional sense, the state has a band the box. i have to employed in the department that have criminal records. they were both done. they made stupid mistakes and their outstanding employees. also we do the certificate as i mentioned that goes to the net literally comes from the department of corrections that says give this person a chance. on the other hand, the other answer is we have grants to community-based organization. i really don't think that government is elected in this space in contrast to faith-based organizations. so we specifically reach out to faith-based organizations to provide the housing, additional education and food so the

weather folks are released from prison or the county jail and not looking to rob a convenience store because they have the money and they have no food coming to provide additional training their and then we work with this committee based faith-based to find jobs for these individuals. >> if i could just mention come in texas we passed a ceiling on for misdemeanors when you can get your conviction after you've been on the straight and narrow in the committee for a few years. you can get -- prosecutors, they can still be used when you apply for a job or housing. either way past one of the chambers in west virginia just about a week or two ago and it is pending in the other chamber. >> mr. frosh, your state is unique. syndrome has got saudi mediation centers across the country. would it not be an idea for the ag's to get together and put the

criminal behaviors from finra into the criminal system to use that to benefit the prison system? finra as for business links labeled are presented as charities, and their war chest is healthy but if you look at guide star.org much of criminals not going to jail, not pleading guilty, pleading without admitting or denying and they are based in -- you can take the lead with helping out the other states and cover the $100 fine they can't be paid. >> that's a good idea. the soros foundation open society when it the baltimore city a few months ago and just bailed out a whole bunch of people. that's a very good idea. >> i'd like to talk to you afterwards. >> be glad to. >> do we have any more? okay. >> i work with offenders in

prison outside a prison for over 20 years and i find the biggest stumbling block to some and getting out of prison has not been able to find a job, not being able to find a place to live. i believe that there is real discrimination going on against felons and it's just like the country has no, if it's made it a discrimination is not good for it at all, whether it's gender, sexual them whatever. when it comes to telling anyone is allowed to discriminate against felons and there's no laws on the books. in florida you cannot rent an apartment if you're a felon. it's impossible. you have nowhere to live. you have to live in some, and the same thing with work. if there are no laws made by the attorneys generals stating it's illegal to discriminate against a person who is a felon, then

this is all a waste. are there any laws in georgia and maryland, or how do we write these laws? >> i began to think the federal housing laws which control in that area. >> they don't. >> i would also tell you in texas we passed a bill tuesday landlord can't be sued for renting to offenders. it doesn't complete his all but issued by any means. >> i'll be happy to look at it. >> i would just say as the attorney general, neither sam nor i gets to make the law. we enforce it spent you get e-mails every day telling you how to vote. >> that's right. but we struggled in maryland to help offenders achieve reentry. it's very, very difficult. it's difficult politically. we have been struggling, the past couple of years there's been legislation that would allow felons to vote come expand

their voting rights. one of the most basic rights for all of us have as americans, that's been an uphill climb. so far not complete success be there in that. >> looks like we have another one back there. spent on a visiting fellow with the u.s. department of justice working with both the bureau of justice statistics and office for victims of crime on better dissemination and translation of statistical data to support a crime victim assistance field. and i wanted to go back to the part of the conversation addressing how to better support victims. this conversation, like most conversations in these contexts go straight to topics like recitation in compensation to access the recovery services for those victims that we see any images projected immediate and policy, the victim sitting in the courtroom. and implantation with the belly of those rights and services for the victim is so important. and as you all know the product of many decades of movement and

hard-fought victories for victims. but what i wanted to bring up today because i think it doesn't get enough airtime in this conversation is that those victories were for all victims of crime. the truth is less than 15 -- less than 50% of violent crimes are reported in this country and less than 14% of violent crime victims get access to the service is intended for them. that number plummets to 4% when the crime is then reported. we can imagine the nexus with community and law enforcement relations and perceptions of who is a worthy victim and who is unworthy. and also to bring up with the incredible nexus with the top that's important to me in the room about addiction and underdressed drama. a result of those statistics is that many of those victims will self medicate. anand this further cycles future vulnerability to further harm a violent victimization and

justice system in fall. so my question to you is that when we think about a better response to crime victims, what in the context of your state plans particularly through this lens of prevention that's a centerpiece for smart on justice we're all thinking about are you doing to try to address these concerns come especially breaking down the false dichotomy between who are victims of crime and/or people that are involved with the system. >> so first of all i would welcome an e-mail from you on what you think that those practices are. >> ag's can be expert in everything. northlight lawyers. -- can't be. >> as i say to today, i don't want -- there's a female lawyer who's been arrested for stalking me. so for the first time on a personal level i and even with what it's like to be a victim. keeping the lights on outside my

house, having the police department to tell me my gun needs to be loaded. so i am sort of seen this from a different genre, shall we say, all of a sudden. but one of the things i think partial is responsive, because i think we need to go a lot further as you say in this area is we now have some police chiefs and some sheriffs telling their communities we want folks that are addicted to come in and to send you straight to recovery center. we are not talking pretrial. we are talking preparedness. that will mess up some statistics with bga, q., et cetera additionally the next step. when you have law enforcement that gets it, and they say if you need to go in recovery, before you commit the crime, before you're a victim of a crime, come into my office, let me get you into a treatment center, you didn't don't have a criminal record.

you go through the center. you are not paying for the to the. you don't have any criminal record at all that helpful you become a productive. i think that's really what of the next steps. when i do talks all the time one of my standard sentences is addiction as a disease and not a felony. let me tell you that's not easy for folks of law enforcement or public safety to see. that takes an educational process but i firmly believe it now. i walk into rooms with families that lost their loved ones to drug overdoses, heroin overdoses. it's a huge step for law enforcement and public safety to get there. i applaud all those police chiefs, all those shares that now get it and are encouraging folks to voluntarily come in for treatment rather than avoid the criminal justice system to let the criminal justice system help them. >> i wish we could continue because it's been a wonderful conversation but i have been

informed we have to stop the proceedings at this point and i believe lunch is upon us. so thank you so much to both wonderful attorneys general, and great questions as well. [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> please bear with us. >> you want to stand up for a minute, please feel free. we'll have a just one more session. this year it is my privilege to be a visiting attorney advisor here with the defenders services office of admission office of united states courts.

so it's been a real pleasure in working with the institute to putting together this symposium. this next panel is of course to enter to my heart being a federal practitioner. i'm not going to read the bios that are in your program. each one of these judges are experienced on the issues of alternative sentencing. it's a rare occasion we have three levels of federal judges. we have a circuit court judge, judge donald. we register court judge, judge gleeson and then the magistrate judge, judge wells. next year perhaps will have a supreme court judge and we'll have all bases covered. i did tell caroline it's kind of a risky proposition to put a seasoned criminal defense trial attorney with the microphone at a podium in a roomful of people, i'm going to resist the urge and keep it brief. i promise to do that. i'm also privileged to be a key

member in an alternative sentencing set programs in our district in los angeles. we have two very distinguished programs. one is pretrial diversion program called conviction and sentence alternatives, has two tracks, track one will lead to a complete dismissal. after about a year in the program and to get the services that you may need, the issues that get you arrested in the first place. we also have a postconviction drug court to address repeat offenders instead of sending them right back to prison. do what they can and offering treatment. they key is we have really a good collaborative cohesive group led by the head of each of the department. i don't see here quite yet but i think, is chief gary here? no. so we have come in our district we have good working relationship between for the pretrial with george walker in this represented a by

supervising retail services officer calvin thomas as part of our team. our u.s. attorneys, well, we got a couple in succession in our district that have promoted and support our programs. ultimately, neither of these two programs would've been ineffective had not been for the discretion and leadership given by the attorney's office following directive of the then attorney general eric holder and the smart on crime initiative. and then, of course, we have our office represents all the people that are in those programs and then we are rounded off with treatment providers, both in our pretrial and our postconviction programs. we've all heard proposals to change federal criminal statutes. there's a couple bills sitting up on the hill. the smart sense in act we've heard a lot about and, of course, recently the senate

committee passed or voted to proceed on the care act, conviction and rehabilitation act. addressing some issues we're talking about here today but as a long-term federal practitioner editing to hear from the judges that there's very little to really address the issue of alternative sentencing. the smart on sentencing initiative really is on the back end for people who are in prison committee modified some of the monitory minimums, perhaps encourage individuals who are in the federal bureau of prisons to participate in rehabilitative efforts so they can reduce their time in custody. but there's very little on the front and. so up until now these programs have really rested largely on both prosecutorial discretion which i applaud, and judicial discretion. within the law judge of a certain amount of discretion, and you'll hear directly from a couple of the judges. you will hear that some the judges local out on a limb and judge gleeson is famous for

we'll see that judge gleeson has put out a number of published opinions trying to stretch the discretion within the boundaries of the law. so without further ado if i could ask the judges to come up. judge donald. the other exciting fact that judge donald's currently the chair of the criminal justice section. we have justice, magistrate judge wells is a leader in establishing a mental health court in the federal system which is basically unheard of until recently in addition of utah last couple years and, of course, judge gleeson who has been a pioneer for many years on alternative sentencing. having been a longtime practitioner and probably never going to have this opportunity

again, go to take advantage of my discretion and i will say your honors, individually, collectively, i'm going to grant you a motion to address this audience. >> i have taken the prerogative of a sunday or it which were going to talk and judge gleeson is going to go first. >> thank you, your honor. >> okay, thank you. nice to be here. they would be nice to see if we didn't have these lights frying my retinas but i know you were out of i can hear you. i wanted to speak to you briefly about, i want to speak to you at great length about a lot of things but we don't have a lot of time someone to speak to you briefly about alternative to incarceration programs in the federal system. and specifically, the two that we have where i sit in the eastern district of new york, we

have, these are presentence programs. those of you who are familiar with the federal system are familiar with reentry courts. and they are wonderful. they have been around for more than a decade. they are pretty much around the country now, and we are not talking to you about today, not weaken two programs. they are no into programs. they are intended to provide alternatives to the routine incarceration into which we subjected to many people in the federal caseload. specifically there's a drug court with all pretrial opportunity program which is a federal presentence drug court for essentially nonviolence, people who substance abuse is well documented. and we get the sense that the conduct of profit into the criminal justice system arose

out of their addictions. and there's obviously a very strong track record for this modality in the state. we borrow from it. it seems like a big revolution in the federal system. it shouldn't. it's just can we are ridiculously behind. of the social sciences has pretty much proven the efficacy of drug courts in the state systems as ways of enhancing drug treatment retention. there's ways of reducing recidivism. we had the impetus for our drug court was, was my sense from what i you for people to get out of prison to deal with their drug problems in a drug court model, a judge in baltimore. on after they finished a prison term, why do we know that up front and use it as opportunity, a pretrial opportunity program for them to avoid a prison term at all. that program began in january of

2012. we just had our egypt monthly meeting that al-qaeda obit update and a second. it's been in a was a successful. our second alternative is a youthful offender court. it is only of recent vintage as a judge involved supervision program for many years. it was a form of pretrial supervision in our district. the great jack weinstein, my colleague, thought way too many kids were being detained pretrial, rising out of their cases arose out of what appeared to be just a complete utter lack of supervision. kids who grew up in places where no one told them to get out of bed in the morning and go to school or look for a job or go to work. at a forum pretrial supervision we call the sos problem, special

option service program, has been around for more than a decade. once we started the top quark i think she might hear. there she is in the back. she is a saint and she's been working with me to our youthful offenders for many years but after we started the drug court i asked if she thought judge involvement of using judges a monthly meeting with the judge would be a useful tool in the toolbox. she said yes. so since 2013 that's also been adjudged involved intensive supervision program. these programs together don't capture, we recognized him a special it comes to drug courts. we recognize the difference in the case next federally as compared to that in the state systems. so we don't capture a huge segment of our caseload. these programs, but to most mature programs are ours and the program out in l.a. we capture about four to 5% of the caseload. so far combined we've had

roughly 75 participants in sos, since as west as a judge involved program. 34 have completed the program. of those, 25 completed it successfully. 24 the 25 did not get prison terms. and then to show you how great an idea this turned out to be, our attorney general, loretta lynch, was the u.s. attorney when we first started pop and sos in its current form it. i went to her and said the goal, we want your cooperation. the goal is to take this segment of folks that we've been routinely send off for three, four, five year prison terms to do something better with them. she saw me and raised in a because of 24 successful participants, 8000 from 32%, of

our successful participants have had their charges suspended entirely. so to that extent these have become not just alternative to incarceration programs but diversion programs. we've had a great deal of interest expressed. for the life of me i can't figure out by the sentencing commission refuses to place it. i've asked it to fashion a departure for successful participation in judge involved intensive supervision program. judges have been asking for this for years. i'm cleaning out my office because i'm leaving the bench in two days. on the way down, this, just last i found this federal judicial center results of the survey in 1996. two-thirds of federal judges in 96 responded to the survey by saying there ought to be alternatives to incarceration programs are doj support, the

ftc supports them from the aba, right on crime, across the political spectrum but we don't have the support from the sentencing commission because it just doesn't lead the way it should. we've had visits from a dozen bishops around the country, judges, probation officers can pretrial services officers, prosecutors compete vendors. now there are programs like ours, one or two veterans courts. there's a veterans courts out in utah. most of them are youthful offender court of drug courts. they are mainly drug courts. up and running are on the drawing board in 20 just around the country. notwithstanding the fact that if you look at the guidelines manual, you can't even get a departure look at the number of what we are facing. on having the prosecutor come in and say to me on the sentencing date, for successful

participants in these programs, and having them say to me they are not under the conviction at all. but if you look at the guidelines manual i'm not even permitted to depart. we need the institutional support that an authorized departure would give. we need help gathering data. i know the stories would make you cry out of happiness turning these people's lives around. they are unbelievably compelling stories. but i know that you don't justify these programs i reference anecdotes but you do it with data, just as they did in the states. we need help captioning data. the 21 different programs all have different permutations, little laboratories. so we need help gathering the right data and analyzing the data. we need to prove going for what i know in my bones is the truth, which is that these work just has a they work in the states. and they put a human face on a

criminal justice system that is so desperately in the last 25, 30 years the need of a little humanity. this is the right thing to do. >> okay, thank you. judge wells? [applause] >> a panel or so ago i heard someone ask how does this movement translate to the federal system? and i thought, well, our panel can help address that question. i want to first say thank you to state courts who were the originators and leaders in the specialty reentry court area. and its upon whom we now in

federal courts, or at least i have in our district of utah, have modeled from. there are also in this audience today a number of pioneers in federal court system who have brought this issue center to our federal courts. i would indicate to you that our programs in the district of utah, and yes, we are western and yes, we have a lower population, but we have the same issues and problems as anyone else. but our judges are behind our efforts 100%. and we've never had to worry about judicial support. i want to tell you about two things. first about our mental health court system which is the first

mental health court but not the last in the federal system. and then i want to tell you about how we have expanded the role of the federal judiciary and its partners in the reentry process. i'm going to kill but to stories, both of which are true, and begin my journey of interest in history. in one instance there was a gentleman who was clearly seriously mentally ill who is facing again serious felony federal charges. he also was reflected physically with what were a parent tumors -- that were unpaired tumors on his face, protruding as well as similar ones on his body.

we knew he was mentally ill. he was ordered to go off to, for federal psychiatric evaluation at one of our federal institutions. after about three funds he was returned to the district with a psychiatric finding of incompetence he. the problem was during that period of time, his fiscal problems were not addressed and even quickly died in custody as a result of the cancer. that story touched me because it was addressing when need without addressing the second and very obvious need, his mental health address but not his physical health. the second one involved a man

named mr. kennedy come and mr. kennedy was also seriously mentally ill. he was also a serial bank robber whose comfort level was in an institution rather than being out. he was returned one friday night to the district of utah, and he went as instructed to the local halfway house. unfortunately, he was two days early and was not accepted into custody. so what they did, he slept on the street. then he went to the bank he had robbed repeatedly before, rob it again and sat down and waited for the police to come and get him. he had no other choices as a very seriously mentally ill person with nowhere to go.

those two incidents sparked a response in our district as is not uncommon. many of our people in federal probation, federal defenders, sometimes the u.s. attorney's office, and other agencies, my great from the state system to the federal system. i have been asked numerous times why can't we have a mental health court? why don't we have a drug court? this was eight or nine years ago, and the simple answer at that time was, we never have. so what we did is pilot the program with the permission of our chief judge was not really mentioning it to our other district court judges, because

we have better opportunity if we ask for forgiveness, not permission. fortunately, that wasn't along with our pilot drug court program with great enthusiasm from a series of judges who, as the judge has stated, didn't like the lack of options and opportunity, even though they had seen the problem. we are now in eighth or ninth the year of behavioral health court. we now call it as well as mental health court your but because of, oh, the open-mindedness with which our judges and our probation people looked at these

opportunities, we have been able to expand our programming far beyond. we now have an overall districtwide program that is called assisted reentry to the community. that encompasses all of our reentry programs which i think as the judge indicated also involved the first federal veterans court, again modeled after a state similar court. we have also recently started a tribal reentry court which is another pioneering effort from our district which serves and provides reentry services for those that live on or near the

two largest native population reservations in the state, but of which some of them are seven hours away by car. we also stole from the program in los angeles, a wonderful pre-entry diversionary court. we have taken our program which is the utah defender, offender workforce development program, again a model of the eastern district of missouri which we started about the same time as the reentry court which is a collaboration between our federal and our state representatives to provide national level training provided

by our federal partners, with state officers as well as our own probation and parole officers to provide incentives, training and incentives to perfecting employers about, in many cases the benefits of hiring those with felony convictions. we also as well to train individuals coming back from periods of incarceration, how to interview for jobs, how to prepare a resume. and we matched those employers up with those personal. i want to say the word of vendor i chosen to strike the word from my vocabulary, although i just used it. because it carries such a stigma with it.

i also want to tell you about another program that we begun called pretrial pathways, which involves an educational program for those who can participate to spend the federal time so that they learn how best to behave on pretrial release, if they are given that. but also so they and their family have the opportunities to learn from those who have also been incarcerated. what to expect in an institutional setting, so as to ease the way, the journey to and from to work through those institutions. i would encourage everybody to open their mind and think outside the box and see what you

can do in this important area. thank you. >> thank you, judge wells. good morning. let me say how delighted i am to be with you this morning and how delighted i am to know that there's so many people who were committed and interested in dealing with these issues. ..

to handle huge numbers of people appeared that every individual who is and can be helping with the program i counted a plus. our program has the involvement of judges, u.s. attorney's office in our u.s. attorney is here that the involvement of probation and the u.s. marshals service. and we have been in operation now for about eight years and that is good. one of the things that i want to talk about this morning is a