those who have committed themselves to reform, but also to the children who are paying attention. i guess i'll close with my new life. you know, i've been -- it's an honor to have been accepted at loyola miramonte university. i've been home for a year -- i think about you know, where i was just a year ago. 20 years of my life in prison. and i think about even as a man, i behaved like a sheep. just following along. how that is to acknowledge and of all things, thank god this university's mascot is a lion.

and just recently, i was just thinking about the fact that because of this amazing opportunity, because of what's going on in my life, i can now behave and be courageous like a lion and embody what that means and no longer be a sheep. because of that framework in my mind that i'm adopting, i feel and anything else that i can be part of that goal that will cause change and make change and support any cause which is close to my heart, anything to do with youth, so thank you. >> thank you. please give all of our panelists another round of applause. this has been tremendous testimony.

and if there are questions from the audience, if you'll step up to the mike right before you. is the mike on? can you check to see if the mike is on? yes, sir? check and see if the mike is on. >> this is a question for dr. leap. can you repeat the question that you said that the young man said? >> the young man asked me why didn't anyone tell me there was another way for me to go. >> the young man can't just wish for it to come to him. he has to look for an answer. that's what i wanted to say. >> i really appreciate what you're saying. i think he was looking for it.

truly and i think no one answered him. i think he was looking for it. the sad part of his story, he was a young man who did very, very well in school. he was very smart and he wanted some guidance. but it never came. and i'm so glad you're saying what you're saying because i believe that you're a young man who sounds like you will look for that guidance. you will seek it and hopefully, there will be more young men like you and there will be people who answer that search for guidance. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> congressman, walter williams once called -- an invitation to make a killing, adding that the war on drugs restricts supplies

and raises prices. would legalizing drugs keep people from being incarcerated and using the money to keep the taxes down possibly to fund the programs in this act and have the tax revenue where it can only go to these and not be used for any other reason. >> if anyone wants to respond to that? let me say one thing. one of the focuses of the youth promise act is it puts our resources r more on prevention, early intervention and rehabilitation rather than incarceration. so before you even get to the question of legalization, there are things you can do in the present system that you can do. and the focus of resources, if you put all of the studies show for example that drug courts significantly reduce drug use and reduce crime and the amount that it costs just lock up.

one of the first things we have to do is acknowledge the resources are in the wrong direction. >> mr. chairman, i would like to recommend that a question of this importance be the subject of another forum that you would convene because the legalization of drugs is far too complex for us to just give an opinion by a few of us today. it's a huge issue and i think it needs all of our careful study research and attention. the one thing that hangs over the whole question of course is that if we legalize drugs, would we not turn millions of people into drug addicts because it's

legal, but i don't want to try to resolve it this afternoon and i would be willing to work with the chairman if such a forum were to be considered. we have an expert who's taken the mike. >> for the past seven years, i have been on sabbatical from the bench, headed to nashville after the american road policy coalition and like congressman conniers, we have urged and indeed supported senator's webb's bill that would go into issue of the medical consequence of the use of drugs and to what extent would the use explode or not to the point where we would have the dimensions of the problems we have with alcoholism and the automobile accident and

injuries and medical consequences and about increasing the use of drugs. indeed, we see now some evidence that some studies report in california where medical marijuana has been authorized, where there's been a serious uptick in the last two or three years of the use of drugs on the basis that is nowhere harmful than smoking tobacco. i think we need scientific medical evidence and not just popular beliefs on what the actual realities would be. with reference to the use of all these type of drugs. and i have been supported in fighting that battle both on the senate side and with the house judiciary committee now for about 67 years. since about 2004. on the other issue dealing with the issue of prevention, as a

judge who's been on the bench 40 years, i totally agree and indeed have submitted written testimony on the youth promise act. i have sometimes stood in for you at various conferences and indeed, i think this program this afternoon should be seen on cnn and everybody in the nation ought to have seen and been exposed. brother, we need to encourage people to vote, but vote intelligently. with a realistic appreciation of the cost of doing things the way we've been doing them and the cost we will save and the off set if we had an effective prevention and intervention program. the last seven years, i've been developing and designing such programs and like hill harper, we have developed a method

program to be implemented by our local chapters all over the country. my recommendation at a court many of us put our lives on the line in the civil rights struggle to get the right to vote, get the right to be elected officials and eliminate discrimination. i personally at 19 years of age for six months was under death threats in virginia and intended to bring me into the prince edward case to come p pel the university of virginia to admit me in the fall of 1955. only reason that did not happen, my case was settled. because of governor korbus in arkansas and decided didn't have enough money to go for a vote in virginia and arkansas at the same time. i went on to nyu law school. ended up working with robert

kennedy and monitoring the civil rights movement, so i've lived in this, walked the walk and the wisdom of what you recommend all of america ought to realize and appreciate. thank you very much. >> thank you very much. and in the last congress when i was chair of the subcommittee, we passed a webb bill through the house and also, cspan is covering this hearing now and we're also taping it, so it will be available on my website. wwwbobbyscott.house.gov, so we'll be there. >> thank you all for your contributions today. i feel like the energy in this room is tremendous and every single one of you contributed so much to this conversation. >> can you identify yourself?

>> my name is aaron boldman, i work with the student peace alliance, one of the grass roots groups that's been working on this bill for a long time. my question is to mr. prendergast and reference to your profession to compliment the work you do mentoring, which is a movement builder and someone who has been able to build public will through the your career. my question to you is what are your thoughts on how we can build the public will to make this an issue that does go on cnn and focuses on the problems. >> i think that the good news is in every community, there are so many people who are doing really interesting and innovative things. that's what i think the youth promise act is going to build on, all that innovation that occurs at the local level. just like what we do in terms of

movement building for the human rights issue in africa, we go to local areas around the united states where people already care about what's going on in these places. student groups and churches and synagogues and other places where people are already concerned and care and do believe that we are in some way, shape or form, brothers, sisters keeper and so i think the same would apply here. that you would want to invest a lot of time in building those local coalitions that as has been the case with what congressman scott has tried to do with this bill, build that slowly, steadily and build those local coalitions to a national coalition and thus a movement and going to those segments of the community, the constituen constituencies of voters concerned about these kinds of

things and it usually is for these kinds of issues, the religious communities and students, and finding like minded folks who are willing to help put some of those building blocks together for a movement building. there already is the outlines of that and you're a part of it and i think that getting people like hill who has face and name recognition and is able to articulate the answers to some of these issues in such a profound, personal way and there are lots of other guys and people out there who have various constituents. whether they're ministers, judge there. other people, politicians, who have already built in followings and just welcoming them into a broader coalition, figuring out events that are going to get attention to their cause and build from there. and use the youth promise act as the center. that's what i think everyone

wants to see pass sometime this calendar so we can see real change occur on the ground. >> thank you. aaron, you want to mention your website? >> our website is the youthpromiseaction.org, the peace alliance. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> any other questions? yes, sir? are there any other questions after this? okay. last two questions. >> thank you, mr. chairman. committee. for the lot of -- >> can you speak into the mike? >> yes, sir, my name is edward. i am an army wounded warrior and i guess my question has to come back to coming back from iraq, i have done a lot of work with wounded warriors and kind of s dissemination with lessons learned. obviously, some of the best mentors out there, some of the

best experts you know, the information a lot of times has problems getting to those youths and i guess my real question would be with with passing of sacks, how will we envision more or less oversights in a way to make sure that if we have somebody go through the program and has been a really great success, has been where some of these panelists have been, how the background education, how do we identify those people? ho lessons learned and dissim nate that nation to empower them so that if they come out from these kinds of conditions, we're able to go back and you know, help prevent just like we were talking about, the gang members, not wanting their children to go through the same situations. and myself, when i got back from iraq, a lot of different issues that i never foresaw.

you know, that i had to kind of overcome on my own and now, i'm kind of trying to give back. i guess what would the real vehicle or oversight i guess, how would you envision really getting that kind of information back in the hands of those that can do the most good with it? >> the youth, the format is first a locality or neighborhood with designated jurisdiction and you would get together everyone in that area that has everything to do with young people getting in trouble. it would have law enforcement, school system, after school programs, faith-based community, business community, mental health, court services, everybody that has anything to do with young people getting in trouble. and first of all, find out what the problem is. and one of the things we need to find out is how much money

you're spending today on people in this neighborhood going to prison. how much are you spending on teen pregnancy. how much are you -- to get an idea of what the problem is, and then fashion a locally tailored program, evidence based, comprehensive that covers from teen pregnancy, prenatal care up to the time they need either get into college or the workforce. as hill mentioned, you want to create the cradle to prison pipeline to cradle to workforce, to cradle to college. they found once they get into college or on the job, the crime rate plumets. so the goal is to get evidence based tra jjectory all the way to college. you form late that plan. comprehensive. then you find out who's going to save some money. you want to fund the plan, but

you don't want to have to come back to the government next year and the year after that. you've got to fund it again. or have it collapse. you will find out who's saving money. we mentioned the medical college of virginia may be saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in uncompensated medical care. the prison system will be saving money. medicaid and social service will be saving money because fewer girls will be getting pregnant. on and on, figure out who's saving money and we have found that you don't have to get all of it. in pennsylvania, they had funded about 100 programs. $60 million and then went back a couple of years later and found out they'd saved 300 million. if you can get a portion of what people are saving kicked back in to keep the program running, you can keep it running. it is locally tailored.

it's not one size fits all. one community may find they have plenty of girls and boys clubs, but no big brothers big sisters, so you have to look and see what your situation is, where your problems are, what your resources are and put together a comprehensive package. in the funding mechanism is actually the first award would be a funding, a planning grant. because getting all this information and getting an evidence plan together, evidence based plan together and we put evidence based in the legislation. you wonder as opposed to what? as opposed to the slogans of sound bites in a plan if you didn't put evidence based in there, so you have a plan of action and put iting that togetr is a significant job and you have funding to get the plan put together and then if it's

successful, you'll have an award to get the plan implement ed. a are saving money, they will kick back in to keep the program running. so what you would do would be in your locality, help put together the plan, help figure out what the problems are, what your resources are to deal with it, and what additional fund asking do. >> thank you, sir. >> thank you. >> last question. >> i'd like to say thank you, honorable representative scott, for putting together this committee and all the esteemed members for doing your work in helping to uplift humanity in general. i'd like to ask a question. how much effort has been put into researching our loss of national identity, especially in the people of african-american descent community, the loss of national identity has

contributed to the high incarceration rate, and what remedies are being taken to help rectify that? because in our organization, and i'm a member of the morris science of america which was established in 1913 to help teach people of african-american descent to teach us our true national identity, we found since 1865, at the end of the institution of slavery, when our people were emancipated, from 1865 to 1925, which is what we call a period of open slavery and during the reconstruction system, that the justice system, the correctional system was put into place based on the act of our people, based on the actions of our people going for uplifting for themselves. and it seemed that every step that we took to uplift ourselves, a law was made to hinter that. so what and how much energy and effort is being put into correcting that and helping to uplift our people in the communities around the nation? thank you.

>> one of the things we're doing research on is the building of new identities in former gang members, which include young black men and young black women who have never known national identity. because of this, we've done an exhaustive literature search on the building of national identity within prison systems and jails. and i'm here to tell you that there is no -- absolutely no literature on any program to do so. there are isolated programs that had been study ied ad hoc. and i'm happy to give you my card afterwards. but the lack of national identity for young men and women of color is one of the principle

pieces of why youth in -- for example, who i study, join gangs and neighborhoods. and i've had the honor of working with several individuals from your organization, or affiliated with your organization in los angeles who have worked on this process. because what we all work on and to bring it to the youth promise act, but to what your organization is doing is every young person needs an identity. and they need the right identity. so i'm sorry to say the research is not there, but the effort in fact is. >> thank you. give our panelists another round of applause for the tremendous information that we've had. [ applause ] and as representative conyers as suggested that you do, everyone should contact their members of congress to see that they can show support for the youth

promise act. anything more? if not, the briefing is adjourned. still ahead on c-span 3, a senate finance committee hearing on u.s. trade with russia. after that, treasury secretary tim geithner speaking at the economic club of new york. and later, former national security advisers zbigniew brzezinski and robert hadley talking about the middle east. >> this is c-span 3 with politics and public affairs

programing throughout the week, and every weekend, 48 hours of people and events telling the american story on american history tv. get our schedules and see past programs at our websites, and you can join in the conversation on social media sites. the supreme court this week is hearing a constitutional challenge to the president's health care law. the court is releasing audio of the oral argument each day. and as soon as we get the audio, we're bringing it to you here on c-span 3. also on c-span.org and c-span radio. that's at about 1:00 p.m. eastern tuesday and wednesday. the 1974 jackson vanic law links u.s. trade with russia to the country's human rights record. certify that russia allows its citizens to leave the country. the cold war erdesied to push mw

russian jews to emigrate to israel. the senate foreign relations cote hearing on the law and whether it should be repealed. this is 1:45. >> catherine the great once said there is nothing so difficult as to escape from that which is essentially agreeable. russian joining the world trade organization represents a lucrative opportunity for united states economy and american jobs. we can all agree on that. we must also embrace rather tha. russia is the largest economy currently outside the wto. it's the sixth largest economy in the world. to allow american businesses, workers, farmers and ranchers to seize the opportunity that russia joining the wto represents, congress must act. we must pass permanent normal trade relations to ensure our exporters can access the growing russian market.

u.s. exports to russia are expected to double within five years. if congress doesn't pass pntr, russia will join the wto anyway, and u.s. exporters will lose out to their chinese and european competitors. these competitors will expand their exports at our expense. russia pnt is a one-sided agreement that benefits american workers and businesses and requires them to give up nothing in return. unlike a free trade agreement, the u.s. states will not further open its market to russia. we will not tariffs or make any other changes to our trade laws. it's a one-way street. russia, on the other hand, will lower its tariffs, open its markets to u.s. service providers. gain access to u.s.

telecommunicationses, banking, and other key markets. u.s. meat producers will secure the russia market including a generous civic beef quota of 60,000 metric tons. and the united states will get new tools for our toolbox to hold russia accountable to its obligations. these include binding legal enforcement and transparency measures. but in order for u.s. businesses and workers to benefit from russia joining the wto, congress must pass pntr and repeal the jackson vannic amendment. jackson vannic denies trade to communist countries unless the president determines that it is free immigration of the citizens. congress originally passed the law in response to the soviet union restrictions. jackson vanic served its purpose and helped millions of jews

emigrate freely, but it is now a relic of the past. every president, regardless of the party, has waived the requirements for russia for the past 20 years. when i traveled to russia last month, i met with russian and american business leaders, including ron pollett, who is also here with us today. i also met with leaders of the jewish community. the message for all of these activists was clear. the united states should repeal jackson vannic and pass russia pntr. in fact, earlier this last week, leading russian democracy and human rights activists wrote two letters calling on congress to repeal jackson vannic. i'm entering both letters into the record as part of the statement. one letter from the activist states that today the jackson vannic amendment, quote, only hinders the interaction of the