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. i'm just following along. how painful that is to acknowledge. and all of things, i thank god that 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'm here supporting this bill and 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 mic right before you. is the mic on? can you check to see if the mic is on? yes, sir? check and see if the mic 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 the 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 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 mic. >> for the past seven years, i have been on sabbatical from the bench, headed to nashville after the american drug policy coalition and like congressman conniers, we have urged and indeed supported senator's

webb's bill that would go into the issue of the medical consequences of the use of drugs and to what extent would the use of drugs explode or not explode to a point where we would have the dimensions of the problems we have with alcoholism and the automobile accidents and the injuries and the medical consequences and the concerns that they talked about about increasing the use of drugs. indeed, we see now some evidence that some studies and reports 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 base bay sis that it's no more harmful than smoking tobacco. i think we need scientific

medical evidence and not just popular believes on what the actual realities would be with reference to the use of all of these type of drugs. and i have been supportive in fighting that battle both in the senate side and the house judiciary committee. 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. to what we have been exposed to here this evening.

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 sets 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. so my recommendation is and many of us put our lives on the line in the civil rights struggle to get the right to vote, to get the right to be elected officials and eliminate discrimination. i personally at 19 years of age for six months was under death threats. i was in virginia and intended to bring me into the prince edward case to compel the

uniform of virginia to admit me in the fall of 1955. the only reason that did not happen is because 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 torquing wo attorney general robert kennedy and monitoring the civil rights movement and martin luther king movement, so i've lived the life and 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.

www.bobbyscott.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 voldman, 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 throughout 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 solutions and not just 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 issues 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 thing 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 constituencies of voters that are 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 way, in such a 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 mic? >> 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 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 the passing of this act, 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? how do we look at those lessons

learned and disseminate that nation to empower them so that if they come out from these kinds of conditions, we're able to go back and prevent the gang members not wanting their children to go through the same situations. you know, myself when i got back from iraq a lot of different issues that i never foresaw 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 the oversight, i guess, how would you envision 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 anything 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 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 once they get on the job, the crime rate plummets. so the goal is to get evidence based trajectory all the way up until they get to college. you format 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 lots of money from fewer people going to prison. 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 they 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 and sound bytes in a plan if you didn't put evidence based in there, so you have a plan of action and putting that together 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 implemented. after it's implemented, as people are saving money, it will kick back in to keep the program running, so what you would do 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 funding can do. >> thank you. last question. >> i'd like to say thank you,

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 how a loss of national identity, especially in the people of african-american decent 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 our people of african decent their true national identi identity. we found that since 1865 at the end of the institution of slavery when our people were e emancipated, until 1925 in the period of slavery and during the reconstruction period, that the judicial system and the justice system as we know it, the

correctional system was put into place based on the people. based on the actions of our people going for uplifting for themselves and seeing that every step that we took to uplift ourself, a law was made to hinder that. so what and how much energy and effort is being put into correcting that in 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 have 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's no, absolutely no

literature on any program to do so. there are isolated programs that have been studied at hawk, and i'm happy to give you my card afterwards, but i can tell you that the lack of identity, include i including a national identity for young men and young men of color, is one of the principle pieces of why youth, for example, join gangs and neighborhoods. and i have 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 and 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 their tremendous information that we have had. and as representative conyers have 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.

here in washington, the clinton global initiative is kicking off their student conference this evening with a discussion on the power of public service. founding chair and 42nd president bill clinton will host a panel to include former secretary of state madelyn albright. this event is being hosted by george washington university and live coverage gets underway at 7:30 eastern on c-span. coming up this weekend, c-span will reair the oral

arguments dealing with the constitutionty of the nation's health care law. tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 eastern, justices examine whether the penalty for failing to purchase insurance constitutes a tax and thereby removing the case. at 5:00 eastern, the questions of whether the expansion of medicaid is an intrusion on the states. sunday arguments on the constitutionality of the individual mandate. and at 4:25, if the mandate is found unconstitutional, can can the rest of the law stay intact. listen to all the arguments from this week on c-span or any time at cspan.org. this week on news makers, chairman jim jordan, the ohio congressman talks about why he supports paul ryan's budget, which passed the house thursday. >> there's a lot of things good about paul's budget.

the fact that particularly the policy statements where they have incorporated ideas that really are like medicaid reform where we can better serve the recipients. so a lot of good. things in there. tax reform policy. it's a thousand times better than the president's budget, but the difference between the two is we can balance in a reasonable period of time, in a time frame the american people think is common sense. five years for ours. it takes 28 years for paul's. that's it important to show the american people he's what we really need to do. but the fact remains, you can't get 218 votes for our budget. so we need to pass something. and paul's is a lot better than the president's. so we're going to support that. >> republican study committee chairman jim jordan also weighs in on campaign 2012.

see the interview on sunday at 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. ronald reagan was leaving this hotel after delivering a speech. i can't believe he's this close. the agents are surrounding him. the first hits the press secretary in the head. he falls down. the second hits a d.c. police officer who turned around to check on the president's progress. he gets hit in the back. now the path to the president is clear. it's wide open. hinckley has an effective range. he has done target practice. >> march 30th, 1981, john hinckley fires six shots. this weekend on american artifacts, the race to save a president. sunday at 7:00 and 10:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv, this weekend on c-span 3.

live sunday on founding fathers. your questions for author and national review editor richard brookhiezer. his book he'll take your phone calls, e-mails, and tweets sunday at noon eastern on c-span 2's book tv. the atlantic magazine recently held a summit here in washington. among the guest speakers was robert reuben who served as treasury secretary. he spoke about the pressing need for an agreement on reducing the debt. the progress wouldn't come until after the november elections.

welcome to the economy summ summit. thank you for being here. i'm going to resist asking you my first question what that choke was that you just shared. >> i suggested that you ask the first question which is a better fly fisherman. paul or me? >> and his answer? >> we each had a different answer. i said me, and he said he. >> i think this is an interesting time to be having a conversation about the economy because how much has changed in terms of the perception of the landscape. if we were having this conversation at the end of december or january, it would have been darkness all around. the euro was on the verge of breakup. in the united states, the economy seem ed to be barely growing. possibly on the verge of another recession. the fiscal picture here was all screwed up. we had enormous question marks about the extension of stimulus tax cuts. and the federal reserve