>> where is the provision for of this piece? because if we can't get these middle schoolers who are now ramping up, if we can't find them, stop them when they're in middle school, all this is for not. that's what we need to be going is middle school, maybe even elementary school but at least middle school. where is this going with juveniles?

>> we've looked at the version of youth and out of home please months, $90,000 a year bad for use in georgia. recidivism rate is between 50-65%. we came up with a fiscal incentive grant program and we have 29 counties in georgia who represented 70% of georgia's at-risk youth to build evidence-based programs. we gave them the money that have been proven to reduce recidivism and we asked them to reduce out of home placement by 15% completion report. they reduced by 62%. 1666 a year are now being triggered an evidence-based programs. that's one way to get the most important thing and the point you're making, my wife is an elementary school teacher, when

we have conversations about criminal justice reform we think about the system. judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, prison. that's what we're thinking about. less intuitively but more important is the criminal justice reform is not just about the system. it's about getting further back into continuum and working on education. i presided over felony criminal court for seven years and the first three years i counted 6000 criminal defendants in felony court i do with an asked three questions. how far digital in school? what first drug to june 1 at using, what percentage of 6000 adults that i dealt with at a high school diploma or ged which against? i suspect these donors will be relevant in your state as well. think high school graduation rate. 20% he said? here's the number. that number is 34, people. people.

if that's not demonstrative of the correlate of effect between criminal justice policies and education i don't know what else is. we've got to keep kids in scho school. >> and the earlier education of children. what was happening in our state, someone passed reading to succeed bill this best you would also correspond with trying to get to universal education and earlier. that's one of the key components. we have not addressed juvenile justice reform yet. we are doing it in peace deal. to cut certain pieces that are being found out like race to age. south carolina is one of the only states that does not have it passed. new york and north carolina has it down at 15 and so we need into changing that. at the end of the day treat children by children. >> there's often time, you can control the message.

i think people are really starting to pay attention to where kids are. i think we've seen a decrease across the country. >> and pushing a little further on that, not just kids but young people, 24, 25. we are really taking a lesson from that to say what else can we do and can we learn from this, know that kids and young people leave that behind, field expunge. really look at that as an option. >> people matter. you were talking about, we don't have a lot in south to let race at the age but we have 17-year-olds that are incarcerated with the adults. he has them all in one institution would eat together, do all that kind of stuff that

something you can do it in his position. is not required by law but he does. we can do the things we can do to end up making it better as well. >> two quick things and then we've got to wrap up. the first is if you go back to 2007, texas was mentioned into their dr. rhee remarks. they effort between 14, 17,000 beds with new construction. the same session they put $4.7 million into the partnership. a proven model to reduce crime, teenage pregnancies, smoking, a bunch of other things that are sort of in between that young age and adolescents. most likely. most of the folks in the adult system, worth noting, fascinating distinction between

adult and juvenile detentions. it has fallen for everybody. kids and adults. the adult risen system has basically plateaued. the juvenile system, the rate has been cut in half. so why is the adult system experiencing th this same crime decline in the juvenile system has plateaued while the juvenile system has seen more returns. there's no such thing as a 35 cents for most juveniles. kids age out quite quickly. it means the system is stacked up on itself and can only go so far. we are being given the stop sign. want to say thank you to the panelist. what you heard was that these are issues that are driven by faulty decisions and, therefore, policymakers need to lead in

response to the. please join me in thanking our panelists. [applause] >> thank you to our moderator jake horowitz. i want to thank our panelists, judge boggs, ms. james, senator malloy and mr. owens for your comments and that detailed view from some of the initiatives and successes of loading things happening in some of the states. i would now like to introduce to you mr. gary more who is the director of the ohio department of rehabilitation and corrections. he has 40 years of experience as a corrections professional and he is very well known for its innovative and efficient prison

management but more important i think it's just one to note that he has a very important policy which is energy truly expect an impact corrections in america, we must continue to invest in people, not in bricks and mortar. and he has committed to this process to not opening additional prisons in the state under his care, and really looking at some of the alarming incarceration rates of females and drug-related crimes that create collateral consequences that can last a lifetime. and he's going to underline the importance of making some of these changes to look for to your remarks. thank you. >> what a great panel that was. let me first i want to start by saying it's a great day to be alive. that's important to me because i think it reminds all of us all

of us can be a major part of making tomorrow all a lot better for a lot of people if we believe it today. it is an honor to be here. i started like a ritual i first, 1974, at the marion correctional institution is a teachers a. i was to pay ranges below a correctional officer when i started, and had some great experiences that i thank god i've been able to work in this profession. i had the opportunity at the age of 232 desegregating a prison, sell houses, programs and jobs. had the best job in the world for about 12 years in different places being a warden or superintendent were you can really enact change if your vision is right. most recently i've had the great opportunity to work with both the american correctional association unrestrictive housing or solitary confinement or what i wanted to say that i see a tremendous parallel between the struggle with

putting too many people and restrictive housing and a prison system and each of mass incarceration i want to spend most of my time doing today. if you don't mind i want to start with a personal story. it's why i'm here today. it's very personal but it's why i am here. i retired from our department of rehabilitation and correction at the end of 2002 and i loved her system, i love don't our career. i loved everything i did what i retired. we did some work in the juvenile system. i worked for about three years working with juveniles, running a facility and running the juvenile facilities in ohio, and my wife and i became consultants. you don't supervise anybody when you're consulting. it's an interesting thing. we're having a great time and very selfishly, linda and i had the chance, i've been married 43 and half years, i had the

opportunity to spend a few days every month at our place in sunset beach, north carolina. i love that place. we would having the greatest time and doing consulting, writing, doing all country training and leadership development and working with culture in prisons, something we haven't heard that is really important. and in the summer of 2010, i got three calls from a transition committee in ohio, governor kasich had been elected and the calls came in and said, gary, would you like to be the director of the department of rehabilitation and corrections of ohio, department where you spend your life supporting? the first call came in and i spent about three or minutes what an honor it is, great, one point had really been great but no, thank you. they can thank you much, it's another. the second call my response was a lot less, a lot shorter. the final call was no, i really don't want to.

it was also this because we were enjoying our lives. finally, the fourth call comes in and its is complicit, some people have been talking to governor kasich about how to run the correctional system. a lot of budget issues, deal with the budget and he just wants to about some of these ideas off of you. would you please come in and talk to him? i would hope that regardless of your political persuasion when the governor calls and asks for your opinion, you would give it. this is december 27, 2010. seven weeks after the election. the largest state agency trying to figure out what we're going to do. the person said you will have 15 minutes with the governor. 15 minutes. my wife is all in the she says we will go. we will spend the time, 50 minutes and then we'll go to lunch. i know my loyalties, so we do. we go there. we are up on the 19th floor right downtown in the transition

office. i take linda down to one side with have refreshments. she loves diet soda so she's also a. i go meet john kasich for the first time. never met john kasich so shake his hand. he looks just like he does on television, and he says gary, you've only got 15 minutes. i said i understand that. he said about to bounce some ideas that people have been giving and i want your honest reaction. i'm not going to give all of the ideas that he had but he spent about 10 of those minutes talking about the plans. we've got to reduce budget and this is how we're going to do it. at the end of the conversation he said what do you think? i said, without thinking, i didn't have any notes, i'm not scripted, i said that's the stupidest ideas i've ever heard. [laughter] we are not going to send people out of our state. we are not going to get people to care in the private facility someplace else outside of ohio away from family doing things that we don't know what's going

on. and turn them back to neighborhoods and families expect those neighborhoods and families to be better than they were when they left. that 15 minutes went to three uzbek some of you heard this story. three hours with the governor. now remember i started at the marion correctional institution, $2.50 for an hour. finally he says is your wife your? i said yes. so they send someone down to get linda. she still down in the soda room, right? so when she walks in, the eyes were big. i knew should more than one large soda. meets the cover and says, governor says, linda, i want gary in this job and we are going to do it his way. and at that moment i had no intention until that moment of

taking that job. none. none. folks, the next thing he said is gary, i want you to reform the most unreformed part of government. do it. and we've dedicated, since december 27, 2010, to talk about some of these things after i talk about what i consider to be the insanity of what we've talked about thus far. so let me just talk. i've got to talk about this before we do because it's important. from 1920-1975 our country the united states had a very stable prison population, ran between about 200,000 about 400,000 of a beaches under 500,000 for 55 years.

i think it just adjusted with the population. 1975 there was a dramatic increase that we saw. in fact, and we talked about numbers but from 1975 we've gone from under 500,000, about 400,000 people to about 2.5 million in our state prisons and jails. at the same time i can tell you in ohio we have the lowest violent crime rate we've had since 1969. i'm going to talk about the trends in ohio he forget into this. and we know. we know that martinson wrote his books about nothing works. we know vietnam ended during that time period at our people came back not supported in a drug culture at this point and tough to get jobs. we know the mental health system was decentralizing in cash to enter presence became not just the default place the sentencing for judges but the default mental health hospitals.

today as we stand here i have 10,600 mentally ill incarcerated in our presence in ohio. i want to talk, i'm going to end with a discussion of this. we talked about the sentencing practices in this country. the process to make sausage. criminal justice sausage or laws in this country have been a significant influence. we haven't talked about that significantly in this country. we talked about the national trend. so let me talk about the trends in ohio and some, folks, i don't care if you're a fiscal conservative or whether you care about people, and let me just say this, i have to say this. the underpinning and until we get to this point and until these walls are knocked down and a foot outside this room hears it and understand it, we are working with human beings. we are working with human beings

and i will take that their people that do not believe that and if you don't understand that, believe that, talk to someone who's trying to get a job and spend maybe just six months in prison or who have never been to prison, have been on paper, under parole. we are to understand this and we have to talk about it. we have to talk about the facts that we are in the people business, not the inmate business. let me go back briefly. i want to get into the meat of this and understand the time here, but july 1, 1974, i don't think i'm that old. a lot of people do, i don't but july 1 in the state of ohio there were seven presents. today we have 27. the arc 8300 people in prison in ohio. today there's 50,600 imprisoned in ohio. out a subset, the total the day i started in ohio's prison system during my career as a teacher's aide there were 291

women incarcerated in the entire state of ohio wanted around the campus, 291. today we have 4300. it has been a trend that is significant. and if you think about the lowest violent crime rate since 1969, it's illogical. we've had to pull system of sentencing. we've had some more current trends and commitments are down a bit overall, but 6% increase in the number of, the percent of women coming in. i want to talk about women in just a second. as we look at the united states of women, so what do we know? it's an interesting thing. it's hard to see this, but we passed house bill 86 that's caused a significant decrease, in fact a drop of almost 1000

inmates as we passed this the first of our administration. it basically said first time nonviolent offenders should not be sent to prison. that's a pretty remarkable, dramatic thing, and it was a 14 month consecutive reduction in our prison population. you can see it with the women as well. but it's got up and now we see our 2023% of our new intake happens to be probation violators. what i want to talk about his visit gap between -- this gap. a huge issue is length of stay there 2007, it's important all of our jurisdictions understand and look inside our numbers at what's causing this. 2007 in ohio there was a decision by the supreme court called the foster decision. what it said was that previously

for sentences to go and the very top range of the sentencing range, the had to be a set of reasons documented and submitted. that was stricken down in 2007. we have seen a remarkable difference then without any restriction to document the reason for the highest since. we've seen since 2007 the impact that decision being 6700 more beds come into our system because of the length of stay extending. that length of stay is predominately with our most light security or felony fours and fives in ohio. so if we take a look and we talked about the numbers come and begin looking at numbers it's really pretty darned import. if we identify the five most

frequent, the five most frequent, most serious offenses for which people are sent to prison in ohio, it targets either an opportunity or an issue. i think it's both. you can see the 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-point for, and females 21.5% of women, their most serious offense for which they are sent to prison is drug possession. you can see the following numbers on the sheet. as we take a look at this, is it a problem or is it an

opportunity? the opportunities is for everyone in this room, and i think our justice talked about it earlier. everyone in this room is going to have to talk about this story and the story of intersection. i happened to be at a church about three weeks ago on a tuesday night doing a criminal justice information peace, and the church was full to which is interesting thing. the church was full. i've asked a couple of parliament questions before even started talking. the first question is how are we doing in the criminal justice business? i would suggest to you that is a question that we all ought to ask ourselves all the time. how are we doing? we ought to be asking others. i think because there are a few members from own church there that i got some favorable ratings because the percent was like 82% thought we were doing okay. i think there were some personal

issues of their, but second question is how many people in this room, and the church was full, and we have them fill out a form. how many people industry believe that the course and the path for proper criminal justice is to build more prisons? 30% of the people said we think we need to be building more prisons. keep us safe. if you look at who is coming to prison, i had not shown this to them yet, and to talk about the fact that in ohio at least the national recidivism rate is wardy 9.7 and ohio is 27.5. because our missions and is reduce recidivism among those we touch, and we go through that at the end of the night, at the end of the night there was one person in the entire church who believe we ought to be building more prisons. my point is that we all have, i told the rabbi earlier, i wish

the walls in this arena here were knocked down so that more and more people can do this. that's what i have to depend on you, to talk about the truth of what we are doing. we are doing good things but we are locking up way too many people that can be more effectively had in a community setting. if it off without and i will talk about the sense of opportunity in just a minute. the one thing about the governor is, he's full of energy but he has stayed true to his word. gary, we're going to do two way. i said i'm not going to build a new prison. prison population paralleling the same density at the california system did. i said i'm not going to build another prison. we can't just let people out. we have to treat people. people of addiction. in this last budget we increased, this is not a budget that we increased 58 million new

dollars to be inserted into the community correctional and. not just for residential that although we did increase 500 residential beds but into probation improvement grants to give counties that have a team around the cause to come up with a plan to reduce their commitments to prison, keep their communities safer by putting people in evidence-based programs in the community. $58 million of new money. the recently say that as we look at the largest counties in ohio, the five largest counties in ohio, cuyahoga, cleveland, cincinnati, hamilton, columbus franklin, toledo, lucas. that i think akron or dayton. i'm not sure which is the fifth. but we saw a 10% reduction in the number of commitments coming to our system over the last five years because we have invested

in community corrections for a longer breed of time. out of necessity we have invested it. the other counties would not have the money to do, the more rural counties would not have the money to do. they do not have continuance. they have people that are addicted. they are looking for options and the options have been the default sentencing to prison. we've seen a 5% increase in those counties, and i will tell you we are committed to provide local money to those local rural counties that have the same kind of impact. because a six-month sentence is a life sentence to many, right? if you don't believe it ask someone who's trying to get a job after they've spent any time in the prison system. i want to talk just a minute about an opportunity, and i know we are running short on time but

i want to talk about the sausage that comes out of criminal justice legislation. we've all heard it. you start out with a vision and mission and clarity around something and then it changes. in ohio in 2015, despite real bipartisan support for trying to make a change, and the judges, meeting with the judges, the judges think tank every quarter editor of them i need your help. there's a lot of movement, but despite that ther they were 91 e 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? they are either a new law, they are either enhanced penalty, or they are a mandatory sentence, or all of the above. unfortunately, and it is true, and we can never discount of

this, there's often a horrific event that's taken place that's caused this piece of legislation, and to our victims across the table from the legislators and it is extraordinarily difficult to say no. and over the years and over the time we have had a steady increase since 1975 of mandatory sentences and enhanced penalties and length of stay. and, in fact, misdemeanors becoming felonies. the effort that we've undertaken, and i'm hopeful and our work is to be done by august, is a 26 person committee, eight of which are legislators. the others are a diverse group of people, including me, that's talking about what makes sense to rewrite our entire criminal code. in a setting that focuses on evidence, focuses on research,

focuses on the best practices like we've seen in south carolina and georgia just a minute ago. take a look at what makes sense and change laws to ensure that those people that we are afraid of because they will hurt someone are properly secured but program did not forgotten, and those people that we are just mad at and don't have any other alternatives, we build alternatives in the community to deal with those folks. intervention in lieu. i think it's important point. we want to expand the opportunity. will want this is this. we want to give the judge and opportunity, forget about mandatory sentences. we are opposing at least i am opposing almost all mandatory sentences. we've elected judges to make decisions. let's do that. let's give them their job. let's don't tie their hands and say they have to send someone to prison.

person comes in from the judge says i want to be helped by the judge convinces them that much like federal courts we talked about or the veterans courts or mental health courts, they come in, enter into a program of diversion and to talk about with the judge what they need to do and they set specific times and goals and to do. if they do it and one of the greatest things, judges are great positive influences on people. if they know they'll have to see the judge every couple of weeks but every month, and every time they get to do something good or bad, if they know that, they are more compliant. they understand the plan. if, in fact, they complete the program that the felony conviction is erased. even though we need to ban the box universally i think, that becomes a moot issue with it. we are proposing an extensive expansion of that. we used the pew results which said all jurisdictions that

increased the levels saw no increase in that behavior. there's a threat, currently allows $1000 threshold for felony theft. we are proposing an increase to $2500. using the research instead of the emotional tugs we have come with proposing to increase. that's so important because of his. if 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. priority as a created. medicaid expansion, we were an early adopter and i think is the greatest opportunity make a positive difference. most of my years i believe that completing the program had to be

done inside a prison. i was the warden. if they didn't have enough time to complete the program, you didn't put in any. our drug folks coming in after some jail time credit and a short sentence, we had thousands and thousands of people. we released 8400 people that u.s. that they get the those people were not being touched and those people had the highest rate of addiction and mental health because historically we were not smart enough to understand that we've got to get these folks started with medicaid expansion. one, we increased the number of people and addiction treatment by 50% inside our prisons. and we spent money of five regional contracts to continue drug treatment in a consistently in the community just like what's being done in the presence. but the linchpin is our electronic health records, they signed a waiver and that person's treatment continues

immediately into the community from the prison system. we are touching people now that we've given up on before. i was walking through the reception block at our female prison, and i love programs. we have therapeutic communities. we did a hominick project. we are striking songs to the hospitals in africa with children are dying and our inmates are singing. all this stuff is so uplifting. i walked into the reception block and see female inmates that look like my granddaughter, in some cases doing two or three months because of a six-month sentence with jail time and getting a life sentence literally. and thinking that historically we have done nothing with those folks. we are now. and then finally in terms of this and the federal system had it for a long time but for us it's a big deal. july 1 of this year the legislature said i trust what

you are doing. i trust your citizen rate of 27.5%. i testified if you look at the national average you will be returning 4300 more people to prison but you're not because it sure mission. you have great support. your 81 of the 88 counties have full function reentry coalitions that are doing unbelievable work. what we're going to do is this. we're going to say that there's this pocket of people, i think it's maybe 2100 people that come into, they are nonviolent and you can get them ready for treatment we will that you release them with a discussion with the judge. moves into a halfway house and potentially into day report, so we're starting what we call a treatment transfer are we getting people out of reception out of seven days of their own unique population to move intended different setting that is totally focused by themselves

aren't treatment readiness putting them through a minimum four to six weeks of treatment readiness and moving about in the community even if they have a year understands. so folks, that's good to i'm proud of this or i'm proud of the fact we now have integration units were expect inmates to work eight to 12 hours a day. community shelters and animal shelters and improved food pantries and passing the back. they are out in the committee. so proud of that. i'm proud of our recidivism rate but quite frankly we've got to stop the mass incarceration and we have to use some logic about our sentencing i believe and where to look at research like what was done at washington state policy institute journal that took an analytical look at the effectiveness of these cruel justice programs. what they basically said that theoretically and and ethically as a look across the spectrum of

these studies, that community-based programs are twice effective and one to the cost of sending someone to prison. i just want to say, you know, it's an honor and privilege to be your, and it seems to me, and i'm not sure you would expect an old prison warden to say this, but it seems to me that judges should that be the primary referral of people to get treatment for addiction or mental illness. when we have a rotator cuff issue, like i've got, we go to a doctor. a doctor refers us to searc to n to the surgeon takes care of it. there's no stigma attached. think about your families. think about the people you talk to. is a clue to all of our communities in this country have a process where parents know that they can take a child someplace and get treatment?

and if they can what kind of statement is attached? i think we have to recognize that these darn drugs in this current generation are certainly different than when i was growing up are so strong and addictive that it's a different world. and the old saying is just say no, right? that was the old design for a decade or more, it's awfully tough with the strength of drugs and i think with created community support him and i couldn't agree more, think about this. my full mission besides hopefully turning folks around and making their lives better, i want to get rid of my budget. i want to get rid of this $1.6 billion budget. i want to invest in people earlier in their lives. i think there's a lot of correctional directors who want to do that, and i will close with this. don't settle for tinkering. i was at the last legislature in

pounding on the podium. i said i'm tired, sick and tired of tinkering. it takes too long. we've got evidence. let's use it but it just takes too long. and i know that my fellow correctional directors feel the same way. the unfortunate thing is as i was telling the story earlier this morning, we have 20 state correctional directors that have less than 18 months in their job. it's very, very difficult for them to lead with are just trying to find and figure out, just to manage the system. all of us have to be leaders in this and go and tell the message that there's a better way. there's a better way and we know that. we've seen it. evidence produced it. we've got enough caring people to really carry this out. let's don't let this gathering just let us feel good. like i did i think two weeks ago

in the church. i felt pretty good. but i'm not sure anything happened. with the talent and insight of the people in this room, let's carry this message outside of these walls, but the walls down because the people don't know the truth. and when people know the truth, they change their mind. thank you. [applause] >> i think there may be questions possibly pick it up to our i would be glad to try to stumble through them. >> i just wondered, we talked about the state system. spent would you come to the mic please? >> i will repeat it.

>> you talk about the state systems. can you just touch on how this is flowing to the federal system, as much as you know, what's working, not working? >> i think we heard the question that the flow, one, we have a great organization of the american the association of state correctional administrators, and it's fascinating to know that we gathered three times a year and is typically between 35 and 40 of those to get at a time. i think we need to refuge that environment, but the focus of this took three days is to pass on best practices. in fact, i believe the issue of recidivism started in the city at the end of 2011 at a tribal

meeting were 50 out of 50 directors attended, and quite frankly at the minute i changed our mission to reduce recidivism among those we touched. i think there's a consistent movement that i think there's consistent training that included the federal bureau of prisons at our transport meetings and i think we are seeing a fuller picture of best practices as we need. and i feel that i think we have seen as we look at the attorney general's comments and public statements about restrictive housing. there's a lot of things consider with restrictive housing as there is with mass incarceration entreated. entreated. i think it was invented where. i think there's a groundswell. i can't think of a single director in the united states of america that is not aligned with this philosophy of we are blocking too many people out. we will do the best we can with those we have. we are. we are going to do our level

best but we also want to get our feet on the ground maybe after 18 months i think need to be out telling the story to the public. i had the american civil liberties union in my office maybe a month ago talking about restrictive housing. i have a great relationship with them but i said listen, i'm sick and tired of the old warden being publicized all the time about this mass incarceration thing. i need some help out there. and they certainly are willing to do that i think we'll see a groundswell but i think it would depend on all of us. i think the federal system you are going to see moving in the same direction as the state system that i think all of us do all the different but if we do it all although different we will learn more and we'l we wile more tools in the toolkit. yes to. [inaudible] >> i appreciated what you were saying about a six-month been more like a life sentence for a

lot of folks i remember when i was prosecuting a lot of the his position with the county level and they would involve detention and accountable for sales and not in a state correctional facility. i'm pointing at the statistics you have been sharing take into account what's happening at the county level versus the state level as well? >> the recidivism rate is not but there's a major effort in medicaid sign-ups even in county jails, and judges look at the opportunity to put people in community settings. so we are seeing more of that in the lower tiers of misdemeanor offenses. so we are saying some growth with that but we are not, the recidivism rate does not encompass the locals. i do have delete the the red card was up quite a bit earlier, so thank you very much. [applause] >> get very much, director mohr.

now i'd like to introduce our next panel. and leaving spent his road back the balance of the center for american progress and families, and she'll be joined by some graduates have effective commute and families to talk about -- about their experience from this perspective. just before we start we are looking for attorney general sam olens it easier to please come back stage. >> can you hear me, is my mic on? antacid. always a good start. my name is rebecca that i am the managing director of the poverty to prosperity program at center for american progress.

i'm honored to be part of this conversation today. i think edwards in this audience is probably more fully than they would like to be. with stern statistic that they could get for example, by states has 5% of the worlds population but 25% of the world prison population. i think we are familiar with 2.3 million americans being behind bars in our nation's prisons and jails and rep up also increasing familiar with one in three americans now have some type of criminal record. part of what why i'm so excited to be part of this conversation is happening this morning is that while those facts and those figures and those citizens are incredibly important, they only tell part of this story. for us to 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 who are

impacted by those policies. and, of course, it isn't just the individuals who have been sentenced to a crime. it's also their families and their communities. so i am incredibly excited to introduce the panel that will be speaking today. and 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 i've rattled off, it really helps to shine light on impact the families and i would really have reached a tipping point and that is that we are now at a point where nearly half of children in this country have a parent with a criminal record. i will let that settle as people think about that being a legacy of our nation's failed experiment with mass incarceration and over criminal session. so with that i'm incredibly pleased to introduce anmarie

aylward, the assistant secretary of community corrections at the washington state to part with of direction. she's really been a leader in washington state when it comes to alternatives to sentencing. and they were also going to be bring into the conversation jerad garrison. he's from bremerton washington and he was incarcerated for a nonviolent offense that took them away from his family, including his daughter candidate who is also with us today to discuss the impact on her life. so please join me in welcoming this fantastic panel. anmarie i want to start with you -- [applause] >> thank you. anmarie, want to start with you. tell us a little bit about some of the work that you have been leading in washington state when it comes to alternatives to sentencing spent thank you. it's wonderful to be here it's great to see so many people and be with the garrisons. washington state is 42nd and

just as far as incarceration so we have had small populations. however, the same time in 2010 like many of us we have increasing populations and significant issues with money in state government. we started looking at pathways to figure out the different alternatives to lessen the prison population to we have about 10% of our population in washington state is in the community into of incarceration or on different forms of alternatives. so we looked at legislation that we could use to either have a judicial option for a judge can sentence someone that meets the criteria of family to community supervision in lieu of prison or being able to look at folks with certain eligibility and release them up to a year early with the revision and with resources into

the community and hopefully really tried impact those connections with family. so we wanted to decrease our prison population. we wanted to increase the amount of deficiencies that we could work with in collaboration with other state government, particularly social and health services, by decreasing the number of redundancies, the number of appointments that put family members at odds with each other of trying, to the number of classes that they would have to comply with. so by becoming a little bit more efficient and streamlined, we were really able to increase the efficiencies and climate between other social agencies in the department of corrections. the best way to talk about it is to talk to somebody like jared m. kennedy who have lived through the experience and so while we start the program in washington state for, offenders

as an alternative, we began in 2010. we had about 450 completers through the program. it's a pretty conservative, personal program but did shared imap this is one of our happy participants in the town of fender sentencings. i do not want to talk to about that experience for you spent first off i'd like to thank the aleph institute for on just to come on this special occasion today to cover a lot of terms today that i was really familiar with what i was incarcerated. the good thing is in the last year i haven't heard any of them terms at all. i don't have to deal with any of that no more because what i do everyday is i just go to work and unsuccessful. i got a house. i got my daughter living with me full time. recidivism and all that stuff, you know, i'm not part of recidivism. i'm never going to do it again. [applause]

i guess the program, what a really think is key and i talk to people about it, is the time leading up to applying for the program, you know that each of any infractions, minor, major, you're eliminated from the program. so if you have, say wanted people to know about the program that want to interview for it, the infractions you don't have to deal with because even if only two people are finally approved at the end of it, think of all the stuff you're not going to have to deal with as far as prison was. all the fights, the tobacco, all that kind of stuff. so just leading, the two years leading up to it, i did the best i could everything i could. i went to school, went to college, graduate. i worked on a crew went around washington state and built offices for all the state agencies. all those tools that i was

picking up to put my toolbox when i left and i was out on the street and it was just normal to go back to work every day, which i do everyday. i get up at 5 a.m. and i'm kind of tell five at night six days we. that's just what all the tools i learned from the program. >> kennedy, i think we would like to hear from you as well. was it like being a part from the dead, and what isn't like to impact have impact in your life now speak with well, it was sort of hard because not having a father figure at all. and then -- yeah. >> is it good to have him home? >> and education lies in having a stable like house is really beneficial. it's really helpful, and i think that in giving out earlier is really helpful for that. >> welcome we are glad to see you and i'm glad to see you

smiling. jerad, the want to talk a little bit about how the program, not just prepared you for release, like maybe some of the things you hope folks initial particularly some of the reasons why the program was so successful for your? >> the program works, you could be released up to a year early offer since so they would release you on house arrest to a house. you are still under supervision so you submit a schedule where you're going to be at. i guess it was just a really good safety blanket. a lot of people do their time in prison, get out and all of a sudden right back to what they were doing or want to go celebrate the release. for me my transition was guaranteed to be a successful transition because of the program. i still have to check in every morning on the phone and i still see someone wants a weaker it was just a really combined in they were right there but is a good time to get all my ducks in

a row so i was done with them, i could just transition right to a normal life right away. there was not a between time. there was no got to get a job. the ball was in motion. >> talk to us about nuts and bolts, who is eligible for the program how does it work? >> i really want to emphasize in jerad's case, any people in washington state, there is no community supervision for a number of nonviolent offenders. so in a situation when a case comes through, the wonderful management and the program and the staff them when i take a look at it to look at those persons, many of whom have supervision this summer don't, it really is even more attractive because i can't imagine trying to transition from an incarcerated position into the community without any kind of assistance or safety net. so through the family offender sentencing alternatives,

especially for those folks were not going to have supervision period, they are able to have that safety net through the program. i think that the benefit the transition of jerad as well as many other people. what we look for is almost any of fender, although we do have some limitations, some people with certain violate offenses and crimes against persons that are not eligible, but folks apply compare entity. decimal display group that really goes over because, we really teamed up with early children boarding, department of health services, a number of stakeholders, advocates of got interested in what's best for the child. it's different for the department of corrections to be looking at the best interest of the child said it was a learning time for us. we really look at a number of criteria and look at how stable the residents and the support would be for the person. sometimes we will offer vouchers

so they can transition summit into a residence that they may not have especially for the first few months or a year. we will sign them out into a prison. so just like jerad said it is home t arrests. is like a virtual work-release. >> can you talk more about some of the ways in which this program specifically supports the reunification of families? >> there's a number of ways. everything is so different but some of the measures that we have or the performance options for the correction officers were doing the work with people like jerad m. kennedy, they were increased case contacts with the families. they will do a lot of skill steps are still teaching on parenting. there's an expectation that there be a 20 minute dinner, family dinner every night. there's an expectation that there 20 minutes of reading every day. and would talk to our

legislative body in we talk about one of the doublechecks at correction officers will do, and a note kennedy is an avid reader, but they will talk with the children in the house and said what's your favorite book this week, i what books have you been reading, or they will look to are the books by the bed so you know there is some collateral context and reading and that is happening. i as a parent i struggle being a parent sometimes having a special when you're reentering a family again, having some people both from the department of corrections and social services available with some resources really is helpful. >> kennedy, do you have a favorite book? no? too many to choose from. too many books by the bed. we want to leave lots of time for questions because i'm sure you have something should like to ask. to get in the audience questions? i would ask you to go to one of the two might ask on either side of the room.

-- one of the two microphones. >> this is directed to you, kennedy. if you could give us like one minute, what if he was during the time her father was in prison and a difference in your life socially, school wise, especially among your family and friends and how you felt yourself. >> well, it was hard because the house that 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 that i could make was really limited. so it was the most conversation got a good head is kennedy, what are you here? or, kennedy, like why are you late all the time? or the rarest one, entity, when

i met recess, why are you in the library? >> how did you feel when your dad came back? >> i don't really know how i felt that i just sort of sat there. you know how you can feel so many emotions at once that you don't know what the emotion is? it's like you put too many colors together and it makes it ground but the brown, it's a good brown. [laughter] spent she's 11. she's in between. spent it's a good brown. >> most browns are not really that nice, but good brown. yeah. >> we have a question over here. >> thank you all so much for sharing. in particular i want to go back

to something that jerad 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 something that you said about at the end, very few of your fellow community members while you're on the inside actually got to participate in the program. ..