and richard collinberg on federal grants to fund charter schools. we take your calls and you can join the conversation at acebook and twitter. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] "washington journal" is next. host: in its hometown of jamesville, paul ryan spent time with family and reportedly reiterated his claim that he does not want to be speaker of the house of representatives. fundraising numbers are in. hillary clinton raised $28 billion. bernie sanders brought in $6 billion. ben carson took in $2 billion. it's october 12, columbus day. you're watching the "washington journal." for four days starting october 30, the obama administration will release 6,000 non-violent drug offenders. it's the largest one-time release of federal prisoners and

due to changes and sentencing guidelines, up to 46,000 of them could be released under this initiative. supporters say this will help with overcrowding of prisons. for the next 45 minutes, we want to get your thoughts under his program and the larger issues of sentencing guidelines and drug offenses. here's how you can call us -- you can post on our facebook page or send us e-mail as well. this program that was announced previously in the last couple of weeks. here are the highlights of it. it would affect nichedly 6,000 non-violent inmates to be released between october 30 to

november 2. an initial 8500 would be eligible starting this november into next november. overall in the next five years under this program, 40,000 plus prisoners could be eligible for early release. there are certain guidelines that have been attached from the justice department. sarah horowitz picked this story up saying the commission's action, the sentencing commissions action for these 6,000 is separate from an effort by the president to grant clemency to non-violent drug offenders. the panel estimates its change in sentencing guidelines could release 46,000 of the nation's approximately 100,000 drug offenders in federal prison qualifying for early release. the 6,000 is the first french in that project. the commission added that 8500 inmates will be eligible november 1, 2016 and the

releases are part of a shift in the nation's approach to criminal justice and drug sentencing that has been driven by a bipartisan consensus that mass incarceration has failed and should be reversed. we want to get you caught thoughts on that. if you have experience in the corrections and want to get your thought on this decision and how would it affect those currently in prison, call us. for those of you in law 748-8002. t, 202-4 and you can post on our twitter and facebook page at facebook.com/c-span. a story this morning in the "washington times" says that some of those inmate, nearly a third of the 6,000 inmates under this program will go straight from prison to deportation. this is andrea noble saying that

illegal immigrants and illegal non-citizens who now may be subject to deportation because of the nature of their convictions are mock the wider group said to be released under the guidelines that were adopted by the u.s. sentencing commission. the first wave of releases scheduled -- we will start in with richard in massachusetts on our line for all others. richard, good morning. you're first up. caller: good morning. i disagree with this letting these non-violent people out. you don't even know how many

people we loved have brockton houses and they buy the drugs and never caught. number one. they should go to big prison in the desert and put all these non-violent prisoners out there and let them stay out there by themselves. that's how i feel. host: what's the value of keeping non-violent prisoners in prison? how -- go ahead. caller: how do you know they're not violent? if they haven't been caught, you know, i mean, these people buying drugs and dealing with drugs, they're not working. so you know they're getting money somewhere. so that's most of the time robbing people and breaking the house. i've had my house broken in three times so far. i know exactly what they're talking about. so, you know, they might be non-violent that we don't know about. that's what i'm saying. these people will -- half of them will be in the court system again. you watch and see. and thank you very much for -- host: let's hear from mark from

melbourne, florida. go ahead, mark. caller: yeah, hi, pedro. how are you doing? host: fine, thank you. caller: i just have a comment about where i live in florida in brevard county. the jails here are -- they have like twice the population that they're supposed to have there because they -- we've got this nazi sheriff in this county who they put you in jail for anything here. it's just absolutely ridiculous. so, yeah, i think non-violent offenders, if they have drug offenses, you know, they should be released as soon as possible. host: do you know those that go to florida are for drugs? caller: no, in this count, they put you in jail for anything. for spitting on the sidewalk. host: let's hear from bobby, clinic tomorrow, maryland.

bobby, good morning. what do you think about this effort by the obama administration? caller: i think it's great because we spend so much money on jails that we don't spend money on schools. also you put these non-violent offenders in jail for more than so many years, they come out as the most violent offenders. so it doesn't make any sense to spend our tax dollars to make more scrls that's all we've been doing for as long as the system has been working. it's a private system and it's no good for us. host: what do you think about -- what does it say about the nature of drug laws in our country or illegal drug use? does it give any message to hat? caller: it's a bunch of mess when they put marijuana on the list of everything else. most of the congress voted gainst them. that's all we do.

we put a non-violent offender, people need to be helped, not be locked up in jail. that's a joke. that's a joke. host: if you go to the bureau of prisons website, they'll show you as far as federal prisoners are concerned, not only the number but what they're in for when it comes to the bar graph. the largest one with 93,821 inmates as of september 2. those currently in prison for drug offenses compared to everyone else making up 48.4% of the population. you can get that from the bureau of prisons website. 6,000 of those prisoners are set to be released between october 30 and november 2. it's the largest release of federal inmates in history. these inmates for non-violent

offenses. if you have experience in the corrections system, call us. one for law enforcement and all others, 202-748-8002. richard up next in minneapolis, minnesota. hi, richard, good morning. caller: good morning. yes, i agree with releasing the non-violent prisoners because here in minneapolis, they try to punish the landlord too. so if a person has a marijuana in their house, they declare that house a disorderly house and then they take the license from the landlord. so it makes it difficult for people with a drug offense to find a place to live. plus, they have a hard time finding a job. so there should be some type of job placement after they get out. and quit blaming the landlord for the drug offenses of the people living there.

it just makes it very hard for these non-violents to find a job and a lot of the people in the area smoke marijuana anyway. host: do you think there needs to be changes in the drug law overall? caller: definitelyle they should legalize marijuana and still keep the laws against the hard drugs but i think marijuana definitely should be legalized. host: raymond is in texas. with experience in the corrections system. raymond, thanks for calling in. go ahead. caller: thank you. well, i think that it's a great idea to release these non-violent offenders. they're clogging up their systems and they cause more problems than they're truly worth. but something that would be significantly is the rate of reset victim. i think it would be important for them to continue on with the sentence that they're being released from.

this could be an early parole or conditional parole. they do not set their life on the straight and narrow, they will have to pay their time in the future. host: you are calling in our lines for those with experiences in the corrections system. would you mind telling us your story? caller: i'm just a corrections officer. i work the night shift. i just got off. i'm just sitting here watching c-span and i thought i'd give my two cents. we have a large population in the federal corrections system. and many of them are non-violent and most of them probably don't deserve to be there but the corrections -- the federal detention system is the largest in the country. it's mostly governed by the u.s. marshals and the f.b.i. their the gfs tiff and the legal arm.

there's just so many it's unbelievable how many just are ridiculous. they should either be in a local jail or not even in jail. host: are most of those in for drug-related offenses? caller: over half. i would have to agree with your statistics. it's well over half. being down here in south texas, it's a very large population of what comes to our systems here. host: randy is up next. and randy is from clearwater, florida. hi, randy. caller: hello. these people are criminals. they broke the law no matter what law they broke. nd they should do their time and no matter what. you know, you or i couldn't get away with any early release. and, you know, this is a stupid

program. all laws should be obeyed and there should be penalties for it. nd also, you know, these inmates shouldn't have access to eight lifting and cable tv and l that stuff, you know, like they're benefiting like a regular citizen when they're criminals. . , yeah, i disagree host: what do you think of the difference between someone who served their full sentence for a drug-related charge and then letting them go by a year or two? what difference does that make? caller: say that again. host: what's the difference between someone who served their

full sentence or just letting them go a year or early? what's the difference in your mind? > serving their full sentence, you know, by law, um, you know, that they have to serve the full sentence. there should be no early, early release. r any other kind of program. these are basically felony charges. like i said, you and i couldn't to away with it so they have serve their whole time and then when they get released, try to become a good citizen again. host: that's randy in florida. to the larger topic of

sentencing guidelines for drug-related offenses. there were two legislatures talking about their point piece legislation sentencing laws and reducing sentencing. they are cory booker and mike leake. both the pair talked about the need to revisit those issues through the legislations that they passed. here's a little bit of both of them talking about this issue from an event that took place in washington, d.c. earlier last month. >> the rush to increase mandatory minimums was a bipartisan rush. >> yeah. bill clinton. >> even congressional black caucus was on board with a lot of the changes that drove up our federal incarceration rate 800%. so it's -- understand, this is something that happened bawl buzz we all participated in it. with obvious exceptions. it's not the best way to fight crime. >> lot of republicans approach

this from the standpoint of looking at the financial costs of incarcerating that many people. i look at it more from the human cost. we've got a whole lot of people. a lot of husbands and fathers and nephews and uncles and brothers who are locked up for decades of time a lot longer than they need to be. >> for non-violent crimes? >> yeah. host: you can see that event that took place on october 1 in washington, d.c. let's hear next from derrick. pensacola, florida. experience in the corrections system. hi, derrick. caller: hello. good morning. i was a former journalist -- juvenile corrections officer and one of the reasons i got out of the system because i saw it as a breeding ground for the real prison system but i don't understand when people get on here and say these guys that served time, time, time, but we don't have money -- we're closing schools. it costs $50,000 a year for

putting a man in jail. you can go to school for $10,000 a year. i don't understand why people an't see that. host: rob is next in kansas. caller: we have incarcerated more people than any other country in the world per capita and we're not getting any more results by throwing more people in prison. definition of insanity is keeping doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. it's costing taxpayers. the young people get a record together get a job. it's mental retardation to think throwing people in prison is going to fix them. when you go to prison, there's more access to drug and people

get rained and all that. you think prisons fix people? i think you are freaking crazy. thank you. host: on twitter, janet says we should make jails into treatment center and get people into them ff of drugs. who want to call, the number is on your screen. topic of paul ryan and whether he would want to be the speaker of the house to take a look at his visit over that weekend in jamesville, wisconsin, his hometown. the speaker --

host: dan, from new york with experience in the corrections system. dan, go ahead. caller: good morning. host: morning. caller: basically, i don't think this is just the beginning of change in policy in the united states. the fact is we have 5% of the world's population but 25% of prisoners.

this cannot go far enough. this is just the beginning. thank you very much. host: jacqueline is next up, philadelphia, pennsylvania. hi. caller: yes. i would like to know if these people that are being released are going to have jobs. or just going to be released into society. that's an interesting question. i mean, are they just going to be released? host: some of them will go to halfway homes but and some will stay at home. talk about your interests in the job aspect. why is that important to you? caller: well, so that they would be good citizens and hopefully, they learned a trade while they're in prison. that's hopeful. i'm not sure that happens but hey need to be good citizens once they're released. it doesn't make sense to release them without jobs waiting for

them. host: james from new jersey. caller: hello. thanks for taking my call. yes. about this situation, about prisoners. we would -- we release for minor drug crime. 'm 120% behind it. those who called they should serve their time. a majority of people in recipes -- prison is african-american. i grew up with white people. i'm 62 years old right now. -- i know white people do drugs on a whole but yet, who's in prison for drugs? and who's in jail for drugs? blacks. it's totally unjust.

thank you. host: next, springfield, missouri. ller: i just wanted to say what took so long, you know, for the president. honestly, took eight years. he's just been a total hypocrite ever since he's come to office. everything he does just politically makes him look good. i know people. i'm a marijuana smoker myself. i work full time and i pay my taxes. 'm a republican. this costs taxpayers immensely. our prison population is like 800% per capa. t's like the soviet union.

host: 6,000 non-violent offenders to be released on a four-day period. a good deal of those with a drug history in jail for drug use. we're going to get your thoughts on it whether you agree or disagree on this move. the number is on the screen. by the way tomorrow "washington journal" program will be live from montgomery county in maryland. we're going to look at the corrections system and one jail's efforts to help their inmates re-enter the community through job training and mental health substance abuse counseling. athens all-day program tomorrow. one of the interviews you'll see is a former inmate and he gave

some advice on what he would give to others having serve time in jail here's what he had to say. >> to the inmate, it makes no sense. i would be like open up and take the help you're willing to get and don't just close yourself. it may take some time but at the same time, you just got to be willing to be patient. you're locked up. you have to be willing to come let people help you. for the family, you have to be there for support. that's the main thing. at the end of the day, it's just about support. it's about not bringing so many problems to the individual that's locked up because what you do, you make them more worried that they're going to go back to similar situations. and that really is no -- not helpful. and support and being patient with them and try and understand the situation in jail is not a great place to be because you're being told what to do all day. so support is a big thing. and the politicians telling them or just people in general saying

don't be so judgmental. just because i committed a crime doesn't mean i don't have to change. it's just that my circumstances are different. but at the same time, don't judge us so much. sometimes they judge us because of what they don't know. host: that's a special program that takes place tomorrow on "washington journal" featuring three guests on the montgomery county correctional facility talking about various aspects of the corrections and what happened and helping those in prison go back into society. you can see that starting tomorrow morning at. :30 on "washington journal." -- 7:30 on "washington journal." women is a member of law enforcement. -- william is a member of the law enforcement. caller: i'm a former d.c. police officer. what i learned about what goes n in our government is this.

during the 1980's, we used to hear a lot, you know, we should stop, you know, the war on drugs. everything was about the war on drugs. but in the meantime, oliver rth and three star admiral john poindexter were convicted -- by congress by drinking in drugs in our country. and there were six destinations where those drugs were being distributed by our government but publicly, they were saying just say no to drugs. they were the biggest supplier of drugs. and the fact is these drugs were being carried into the communities of minority people mostly. and that came to light when this stuff was exposed out in california by one of the drug cartels carrying this

information to a guy who was getting convicted for selling $3 million worth of cocaine a day. and once this stuff was exposed, it went to congress. so, you know, our government is trending to a low here. and it's unfortunate they are victimizing people, -- and while they are promote negative minds of people that they should stop, they should stop. they should stop b.s.'ing the american people. thank you. host: jeremiah from maryland arc member of law enforcement. go ahead. caller: yes. indiscernible] so when they are released into [indiscernible]

they don't have any other way or social income themselves. o i do believe that the prison should serve as a place -- indiscernible] so that the system -- we victims them -- victimize them or make it possible for the life of crime. o that's what i think. host: jeremiah in maryland, you can continual the call on the lines, on the screen. we divide them differently. for those of you you and have , law nce in the system,

enforcement and for all others, the number is on your screen. a third quarter numbers are in for those runnings for the -- running for the president of the united states barack obama. -- president of the united tates. on the g.o.p. side, it was dr. ben carson with the top. -- host: the "new york times" looks

at the debate among democratic candidates saying it's the encouragement president's legens that will be part of that debate as they go back and forth. this is from the "new york times" saying a theme likely to dominate the debate on cnn is the problem with economic inequality and with the critique that mr. obama pulled the crisis out in 2008, the recovery has left a vast majority of americans behind -- robert, long beach, california, you are next. hello. caller: yes. i'm calling to voice my comments it's a welcome change to know that our government is finally releasing non-violent offenders

so they could have a better relationship with their families d get on with life after non-violent events. i believe the laws should be changed and would be changed in the near future. host: regina is a member of law enforcement from richmond, virginia. hi. caller: good morning. how are you doing? host: fine, thank you. caller: i think it's an awesome idea that president obama is going to release 6,000 non-violent offenders. as a person of law, i see the tragedy that takes place for individuals go to prison for non-violent and lengthy sentences, how it affects the families, the communities and that individual as well. so i think it's an awesome idea. the only thing i say that once they are released, that they come back to society and they are given tools and given a chance to reintegrate into

society because that's one of the issues that comes up when they come home. the opportunities are not always there for them. so the guys are begin a chance to reintegrate into society. it's an awesome idea. host: who's responsible for giving them the tools to go back to society? caller: while they're incarcerated, they can get those tools as well as when they come home, there should be agencies that are available given the them they they need to get back to soment they have to put forth the work and make sure they get back back into society. host: joseph is next from virginia. you are next. caller: good morning. i'm very disappointed that this policy is coming from barack

obama, the president. look, these people that are in jail do what they were doing -- knew what they were doing. they knew that selling drugs is illegal and can become a federal crime. you know, if you're selling five or six ounces of cocaine, you know that you're going to go to prison for a very, very long time. it's the choices that you make as to where you end up in life. and here's the big point. you talk about drugs in the war on drugs. if you wanted to buy drugs from somebody and you couldn't find drugs, then you wouldn't be able to buy them. the point i'm making is these people absolutely knew exactly what they were getting into before they started selling and doing the drugs. and they have to do the time. if you want to reduce sentences, you start that tomorrow.

you don't reach back and predate all this stuff, people that already did the crimes back when they knew what the time was going to be. this is a classic case of barack obama always letting people off the hook and giving them free stuff. and i'm disgusted by this and trust me, a lot of these people that are going to come out of prison are going to be repeat offenders and i'm going to have to pay for them again all over again. they're not going to be rehabilitated. thank you. host: that's joseph in stafford, virginia, expressing his opinion on this early release of 6,000 prisoners starting between october 30 and november 2. more to follow. you can go to "washington post" has a story on that. we showed you early on that. if you want to give us a call, the numbers will be on your screen. monday evenings, we've been airing a c-span special series looking at landmark kassigs by

the supreme court. 12 cases will be discussed by the supreme court. here are some political leaders and supreme court justices talking about the case. >> the document they produced was eventually signed. but ultimately unfinished. it was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery. >> greg scott is not a citizen of the united states, win, lose or draw. he is not a citizen of the united states because he is a negro whose ancestors were imported into this country and so -- >> there was an affront to common sense that for instance could not be citizens of this -- african-americans could not be citizens of this country and it

was an insult that the civil war were fought over that. >> the supreme court tried to put itself in a position of resolving the dispute about the extension of slavery and resolving it in a particular way that it thought was best for the nation and we saw what disastrous consequences flowed from that. host: the dread scott case will be part of our "landmark case" program tonight at 9:00. go to our website at c-span.org or more information on tonight's program and other programs you'll see. raymond from royal oak, michigan. hi there. go ahead. caller: yeah, hi. i'm talking about your subject about the 6,000 prisoners being released. i'm not adverse to leveesing non-violent prisoners. i'll preface with that. although there's really no filings in there for marijuana. most of these are hard narcotics

so people would know. there's just a misnomer. my point is that rather than releasing non-violent offenders, they need to release the mentally ill. see, this explosion in prison population is coincided with the decrease in mental health benefits. when they start shutting mental health facility, they started housing them in prisons as the state decrease mental housing places. the prison population exploded to where we got 30% of the prison population are mentally ill. in some state, they give them different color of uniforms so the guys can differentiate the mentally ill so when they act erratic, the guys don't start jumping to their concern. this is where -- they have 100-page study come out. the united states houses only 17 of the severe mentality ill on per 100,000.

most civilized nations house between 275 to 320 per 100,000 of their pap population of mentality ill. these are -- i'll just give you one quick example. a discuss it forget went to a judge in florida for stealing a mars candy out of a store. the judge asked him why did you steal? he says i want to go to mars. and the judge says stealing's stealing. six months in jail. now this is what we're dealing with. host: that's ray mob from michigan. david from new york is next. go ahead. caller: hi, good morning. i feel that obama once again circumvent the system by releasing 6,000 inmates. went around 6,000 judges'

decisions and is now releasing 6,000 people into the society, society is not at fault for these people committing crimes. we are paying for them. and we're going to pay for them to go back. host: that's david in new york. "the washington post" has a story taking a look at a long ranging interview that president obama did with assistant mince ast night. -- "60 minutes" -- host: here's the response of

president obama. president obama: steve, i've got to tell you. if you think that running your economy into the ground and having to send troops in in order to prop up your only ally is leadership, then we've got a different definition of leadership. my definition of leadership would be leading on climate change and international accord with the potential we get the paris. my definition is mobilizing the entire world community to make sure iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon and with respect to the middle east, we've got a 60 -country coalition that isn't suddenly lining up around russia's strategy to the contrary. they are arguing that strategy and will not work. host: speaking of iran, the "washington post" highlighting the fact that the parliament approved the outline of a bill that would implenty a historic deal. the parliament allows the bill

to stop its voluntary cooperation -- laura is up next in birmingham, alabama. caller: yes, good morning. hello? host: good morning. you're on. go ahead. caller: yes. i'm calling because of the prisoner system. the bishop and the law need to take their bishop out. because it's so many people have with the law and because they go to prison and go back -- and come back out, then a crime being committed compared to -- they quit looking for the original person that did it. they go back to the prison and

look at the system and see if they fit the criteria and they don't worry about whether they're guilty or not and then hey -- and i am a witness of this here. and they don't worry about whether they get them or not. they fit their criteria, their crime. they quit looking for the real person that did the crime. and i know for a fact this is what is going on. host: andre from minneapolis, minnesota. good morning. go ahead. caller: yes. my name is andre and the reason why i'm calling is i've listened to a number of people speak this morning. i'm a father of two african-american teenage boys. i'm trying to teach them about responsibility. when i'm in my country, it's not showing myself, my kids or --

that our country is willing to follow the law. where is our reparations? i believe wholeheartedly -- help america economically if a person receives their reparations and commit a crime, he or she. finances can be taken from them. but until we address this serious issue that this country is not willing to follow the law, i've heard about the president not following the law. i've heard about so many people that are against people because of religious, so forth and so -- religion and so forth but as a nation, when do we receive ours? and thank you scrch you all have a nice day. bye. host: the lead story of the "new york times" takes a look at the house committee taking a look at enghazi the headline "benghazi

panel's mission evolved in its 17 months." - host: it held nine of the public hearings. the document shows has been proposed. go to the wonder "times" this morning. talks about the chairman of trade in response to some of that took place on sunday's show yesterday. it was an interview with one of the ex-staffers of the

committee. host: one more call on this topic and this will be from