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rate, insist,h: and life of the mother. i am for abortion only in the t, andf rape, incens the life of the mother. [indiscernible] governor kasich: all right, we got to go. >> [indiscernible] governor kasich: you did? much.nk you so [indiscernible] governor kasich: we got to get you to help us.

see you.

>> take you outside for a look near the tour bus of john kasich as he continues his campaign outside in new hampshire. is tons kasich: there that we have been able to do together, and it is really

important that we can at times. in the the partisanship state of ohio a lot different when i was in politics before i got out of politics. -- it was a lot more congenial. it is getting better in ohio. yesterday we had a former leader who was up here, holding a kasi ch sign. is is an effort where you plug together on a lot of things. there are some things that you will never get them to vote for your budget. i tell you, and i first started to figure out how we would improve transportation, none of them liked it, and now they are all the fathers of the idea, and i happen to be the child that went along. and that is fervently fine with you. >> your message to new hampshire voters -- governor kasich: the unanimous

fighting drug abuse in our state. >> your message to new hampshire voters? governor kasich: have fun. i will roll out a plan on thursday. it will be a program that i will people i will try to an act in the first 100 days, and i do not have any other advice -- ems that you are willing to reach across the aisle. every once in a while you do not want to do it. >> one questioner raised the issue of how do you get your name out again. you have been doing this for months. you were up in the polls. maybe slid back a little bit. governor kasich: we have our own

polls. we are doing fine. we have a high positive, low negative, and we are building a very good base. nearly great organization. we are doing better in iowa. it is about building a house from the bottom up. when i ran for the state senate it in the state of ohio, a weekend before the election, a polls that i would lose. i ended up winning 56 percent of the net. you cannot always see things from the ground up. you do not win it with coals or name idea. you win it from the bottom up, just like we ought to run america. thank you. see you. what time are the scorpions coming onto the bus?

>> are you guys ready? >> yes.

>> john kasich appearing in new hampshire. he appeared yesterday in the node labels conference, which we will be showing you. we will have the town hall again at 8:00 tonight on c-span or at www.c-span.org. as we heard mentioned, governor kasich is going to unveil his proposals on thursday. his numbers are fading, not only in new hampshire, but also in his home state, gathering little momentum after the most recent public and debate and seemingly unable to overcome the popularity of the three polling candidates, donald trump, ben carson come and carly

fiorina. you can read more from "the columbus dispatch." >> c-span takes you on the road to the white house, unfiltered access to the candidates, town hall meetings, news conferences, rallies, speeches. we taking your comments on twitter, facebook, by phone, and we cover isgn event available on our website, www.c-span.org. >> president obama laid out his correctional system. here's a little bit of that speech. a prison should be a place where we can train people for skills that can help them find a job, not train them to be more hardened criminals.

look, i do not want to pretend like it is all easy. but some places are doing better than others. montgomery county, maryland, but a job training center inside the to give folk a head start in thinking about what might you do otherwise than committing crimes. that is a good idea. idea, onether good that got bipartisan support in congress. prisoners with reduced sentences if they complete a program that will more likely -- them link former prisoners with employers, help them stay on track. let's follow the growing number

of our states and cities and private companies who have the box on job application so that former prisoners who have done their time and are now trying to get straight with society have a decent shot in a job interview. [applause] obama: and for folks who have served their time and reentered society, they should be able to vote. [cheers] president obama you know, communities should give everybody a shot access, prisons that recognize that eventually

majorities released, so seeks to prepare these returning citizens to grab that second chance. that is where we need to build. >> about 30 miles northwest of washington, d.c., is the town of , maryland. a maximum security jail is there. joining us from there is the former warden and a director of the department of corrections and rehabilitation, robert greene. thank you for your time this morning, and let's begin with where you are sitting right now. what is this room it used for? i am in one of the -- that iss we currently not occupied. this is one of our vacant rooms right now.

direct supervision is where the officer is present with the inmate population 24 hours a day. the of 27 units similar to this. individuals that are housed here. the idf direct supervision provides us with the opportunity to provide more security and supervision to the inmate appellations, but also for the opportunity to bring programming into these units. we have a model called therapeutic community. we are trying to take issues, 64 men or women depending on where they are housed and concentrate on issues that are important to them that have maybe brought them to the facility. one is a substance abuse treatment facility. we are one of four maryland counties that has a facility inside the walls. we are not talking about aa or na, but we are providing

substance abuse treatment. they could be education units or life skills. one of the more complex units for us to run is our crisis intervention unit where we are dealing in quite an increase in the serious and persistently mentally ill coming into the systems. host: it is a maximum-security facility. how do you keep order in an open room like that? guest: when you are looking at county jails and how we generally function, the difference between jails and prisons -- i heard you say earlier, it is very distinct. jails are primarily pretrial facilities. confinement less than 18 months. it is not by the number of staff you have. it is really to a good objective jail classification system. we spend about 40 man-hours using instruments and tools to classify individuals, looking at all of their psychosocial needs. what we can do to benefit them while they are incarcerated

here. it is really a science. plant. that you want to be safe -- it begins with a physical plant. you want the plant to be safe and designed in a manner that it does not lend itself to abuse or misuse. the big piece for us is the model that we use -- i'm losing my piece -- the model that we use to classify our population and provide them the information. the piece not to be overlooked that all is the well, tuned in, correctional staff. we often think about correctional staff as just officers in uniforms. we have everything here from mental health therapists, case managers, correctional officers, and social workers. that whole myriad of staff that you bring to bear on the

population while they are here. our focus is to make sure that everybody who leaves the facility leaves better connected and has the resources to exist back in the community that we are sending them to. if you look at the data in america's jails -- and i think this would hold true whether it is montgomery county or across the country -- anywhere between 90 to 94% of individuals are returning back to the streets of our community. we often read with great interest there will be 650,000 released from america's prison system. we know that in 2007 when we began studying it that 11 million people will pass through america's jail systems. we are the deep end of the pool in that context and the programs and how we use the units and the staff that we have, we can really make a difference. host: tell us about the numbers.

how do you know that? how can you prove it? guest: for us, i would say dealing with this idea of mass incarceration from a government county has been a marathon, not a sprint. montgomery county really started looking across the board of what we could do for our incarcerated population in 1989. we took a look at things like pretrial diversion. in some areas you don't have pretrial programs. pretrial diversion is the opportunity to really do a risk analysis were you are not looking at bond or monetary bond as the sole issue that keeps an individual in jail. if i were arrested, maybe i am given a $5,000 bond within our state. to some people that may be a low monetary amount to secure my freedom, and for some that may be $5 million. montgomery county started looking at pretrial detention.

what can you do to help manage people in our community? one of the statistics, we have 2500 under supervision in our system today. of that number, 71% are under supervision in the community. they have a program that allows them to work off their sentence in the community. we do a risk assessment of those individuals that we place in those communities, those programs. today, there are 678 are incarcerated inside the walls. it starts with pretrial. we try to follow the science. it is not new information. we have known over the last 20 years that focus on education -- i heard one of your callers talking about her son was able to receive a ged.

we know from studies out of the university of florida and others on education that if we can get an individual the basic education, they are 43% less likely to recidivate and return back to jail within three years. we know if we can get them past the three-year mark focusing on other important factors like employment, education and substance abuse treatment, and making sure that everything we are doing here in the jail has a level of continuity. and again, i think that is something that we do so well in montgomery county. it is not a criminal justice system managed just by the director of corrections. i am responsible for it, but we have a very strong, collaborative, working relationship throughout county government and throughout our communities and nonprofits that provide a service. all of those things make a difference, and we are trying to

follow the science. host: we are taking a look inside the correction system in this country with a visit to montgomery county correction facility in boyds, maryland. we are talking with robert green, the director for the montgomery county department of correction and rehabilitation. mr. green, talk about the inmates at the facility. why are they there? how long do they typically stay? are they willing partners in these programs you offer? guest: that is a great question and one that we receive frequently. the average length of stay here is about 48 days. that is the individual that is arrested by one of our police agencies and comes into the central booking. we do processing, receiving individuals from all of the

agencies in the county. that is an individual that is here maybe eight hours are 10 hours going through the initial intake process and released to an individual that will spent 18 months in our system. i think that the inmate population is a willing partner. one of the first things you have to do is that people have to be safe. we can talk about all the programs we do here, which i am very proud of, but that is all built around the aspect of safety, and safety starts with an individual coming into a system where they don't feel they will be preyed upon. we have people -- i would look at our population as a bell curve. about 20% coming in the door are very motivated to change their life, and they want to do it this time and get out the door. 20% on the back end are sitting on the cusp of potentially a life of crime, a career of crime. then you have 60% of individuals

that fall into that curve. it is the opportunity that we take for the first time they may be safe or sober in their life. we concentrate the services in these units. i think the population is a willing partner. on any given day, we have 500 or more participating eight hours a day, some 24 hours a day in this therapeutic community model where they are trying to change their lives. i have been in corrections for 31 years and i started off in a correctional officer in housing unit. if you give them dignity and respect, you them the opportunity to engage something in their life that really has a focus that has held them down and engages the soul, you see change. those that are not ready for the change, we have to be ready to house them safely and securely away from the population that

wants to be involved. we always have to be ready. we have to be ready, based on that point in their life, maturity, time, and opportunity that they know they are ready for this change, and we need to be nimble enough to bring them into the program. they are here for a defined period of time. what we do with them and how we treat them and the opportunity we give them, that is a very important defined period of time. host: with 31 years of experience, mr. green is here to take your questions in your comments. a special line for those of you with experience in the correctional system. let's go to walid in pennsylvania. caller: thank you for taking my call. i like what he is talking about. my whole thing, i was on hold

before he came on the line, but giving people opportunities when they come home. people don't want to go back to jail. we don't have opportunities, but what are you going to do? you have to survive. the way that they got in there is probably to get money. a lot of times people are doing things just to do it, they are trying to get a little bit of money. my thing is, give people opportunities and give them respect. i've never been down, but i have been locked up. once i came home from that stint, i got myself together. i have been working by the grace of allah, i have been fortunate. like i said, he is talking some good stuff and everybody needs to do this. these guys are not all bad. give them the opportunity, they don't want to go back to jail. they want to take care of themselves and their families.

they're not demons. i am talking about people of color. guest: i appreciate your sentiments. it is a perfect lead-in to where we are going. a great lead-in to what we are focusing on, the reentry programs. back in 2005, we started really hearing about this word, "reentry." the first thing that i want to say is there were great faith-based organizations called the going home programs. we built this facility. the director in the county. the wisdom that we would help people prepare just for the journey that the gentleman explained. with 94% going back to the streets of our community, how can we make sure we are putting these transitions in place? in 2005 or 2006, we started looking at this idea of reentry for all.

we had a pre-release and reentry program that was community based in montgomery county for 40 years now. there are individuals that qualify and have the appropriate sentence and can live inside a facility and work in the community and prepare for the journey home. that served about 25% of the total population being released. we took this focus of reentry for all. what can we do for the individual that will be here for eight hours, to the individual that will spend 18, six months, or a year and prepare them for reentry. the idea was just to start bringing these community services in the door. for all of us, life can be a challenge. but when you have been down for six months or a year, losing that community contact, going out the door, perhaps having

reentry supervision requirements from the courts that say, we want you to go to three aa or na meetings per week, we want you to find a place to live and get a job. here is your three bus tickets and good luck. we decided we were not going to be that kind of a county. i don't think we were, but we really wanted to focus on the return to the community. that is why we brought the one-stop work center inside the jail. we are told that we were the first. maybe it is a bit sad that we were. i'm glad that we opened the door for others. to bring this idea of, why wait to engage in employment when you have left out the door -- why not start engage that piece here? so we put the one-stop work center in play that has really focused on preparation for job, interview, for life

walking up to an employer and being able to look them in the face and you can say i have had a felony conviction, here is what i have done in my life, rather than trying to hide it, and i want to engage in employment. we really started focusing on the reentry programs. what we did, greta, was build reentry programs where -- the only place you can find them wasn't in jail. we took what already existed in the community and brought it inside. we did not want to jail-based, one-stop work center. we wanted a good program that happened to be in the jail. it happens to be our third site which sets inside the jail. years ago, our substance abuse treatment programs, making sure the programs they had access to inside our walls was the same program they would engage in in the community. that is continuity, making sure we opened our doors to the community providers that want to help, bring them in and let them

engage in that population here so when the door opens and they are heading out they have all the tools in their hand to help them get in line. i had an individual ask me one day -- you are putting people to the front of the line ahead of me. that is not factual. what we are doing is trying to teach people how to get in line through all these relationships with montgomery college, our health and human services is one of our key partners in helping connect people to the wealth of programs that they have. that bridge and that connection happening here before the doors open is really key. host: are you saying that employers are coming to the jail to talk to these inmates about to be released? how do you convince them to make that trip? guest: it starts with -- the one-stop work center, america's

job center that we put here in 2005, it has the appearance of a work center that you would see in the community. so the first piece is showing the dignity and respect to the person walking in the door to say this is your opportunity, to say, listen, this is what you will see when you leave here. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's room, washington, d.c., october 13, 2015. i hereby appoint the honorable luke messer to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, john a. boehner, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: the prayer will be offered by the

est chaplain, reverend meg saunders in alexandria, virginia. the chaplain: let us pray. almighty god, we come before you this afternoon with praise on our lips. we thank you that you are a god of redemption and hope. from the prophet isiah, you tell us that you have good news for the poor, you comfort those of us with broken hearts. you release us from our despair and addictions, and most strikingly, you give us a crown of beauty for the ashes in our lives. today, lord, as this house meets, guide and direct our leaders. anoint their minds with your hope so that they will approach the problems of our nation with

your vision of redemption, knowing that all things are possible with you. loving god, we dedicate this day to you for the honor and glory of your name. amen. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to section 2-a of house resolution 462, the journal of the last day's proceedings is approved. the chair will lead the house in the pledge of allegiance. i invite those in the gallery and on the floor to join me. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the chair lays before the house a communication. the clerk: the honorable the speaker, house of representatives, sir, pursuant

to the permission granted in lause 2-h of rule 2 of the rules of the u.s. house of representatives, the clerk received the following message from the secretary of the senate on october 13, 2015, at 10:40 a.m. that the senate agreed to senate concurrent resolution 21. with best wishes i am, signed sincerely, robert f. reeves, deputy clerk. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to section 2-b of house resolution 462, the house stands adjourned until 1:15 p.m. on friday, october becauser was just a youthful offender. at the same time that was a 15-year-old black kid with three joints in his pocket and he is locked up. when he gets rate to apply for a

job, what is he going to do? check the box, no we can't take him. the recidivism is created by us as a society. host: i will leave it there because i wanted to share his thoughts. comment within the intelligence of what is happening in different jurisdictions. i can tell you what works here. i spent time talking to the inmate population, as does our staff. one of the things i mentioned that his key is this element of direct supervision. our staff are in direct contact all the time and they do a great job. an individual as a human being not just one behind that cell wall. that is an important focus for us. the things you have talked about with reentry, that is how we do

it, science says it will work. systems.re and more we are at this renaissance moment looking at what will work. well i know is i have a population here for a defined period of time that i do not control. the courts control, and bring to me. our mission is to do good more -- do more good than harm, and prepare them to go back out the door. i think we do a good job of that. i wish other leaders well. we are open to those conversations. i see a lot of change happening. i see a real renaissance moment in corrections where these programs -- i just had the opportunity, i was with the macarthur foundation in chicago last week. in their program, they are 20 jurisdictions, counties, millions of dollars going into help them really look fromat their practices are

incarceration, but what they do inside their jails, andy programs they offer -- and the programs they offer. it is happening. i think it is where we need to be. host: we are live this morning inside the montgomery county correctional facility, inside one of the housing units there, talking to mr. green, director for the county department of rehabilitation. thomas, go ahead, you are on the air. good morning. caller: good morning. my name is thomas, i limit the i live in des moines, iowa. i am a license therapist. i need to give mr. green credit because he seems to be a sincere individual invested in change. i will value there is enough

blame, responsibility, and complicity to go around. blame the inmates, there behavior, from an ethnicity standpoint, wife lame blacks, blacks blame whites, when in reality, there is enough responsibility for both to go around. the complicity comes around when it comes to the judicial system, there is a factor that we fail to look at. anbecoming incarcerated problematic because there is a financial incentive from the institutions. until i was involved in the correctional system from being incarcerated for a simple misdemeanor, and then be told that unless you take the plea bargain, we are going to put you

on a hold, in order to force you to take the plea bargain. on top of that, there is a financial incentive for the judicial system to do that because in iowa, if you spend a day in jail, that is $75. host: i what mr. green to talk about that. is there a financial incentive jail up?to fill the ge guest: absolutely not. , any not charge a bed fee of that. there is no financial incentive. our population is reducing. we are down 23% over the last eight years. .here is no incentive i will say, in our county, the judiciary is very involved in our criminal justice court in any committee. it is an extremely strong organization of stakeholders --

our attorneys, our judges never miss the opportunity to come and talk about how each element of the system impacts the other. we look at a really holistic solution. there is no financial incentive here. we do not collect a fee inside yhe system for a day stay. we do not charge a fee for a meal. it is the opposite. our incentive is to appropriately reduce our population, were maintaining the safety of the public, the community, impacting a citizen -- there is no incentive. host: talk about super max versus maximum-security at the

facility there. guest: we are not in the super world. that comes out of the prison environment. i do not hear much about super maxes anymore. we are maximum-security based on this definition. behold everyone in a local jail that has had a crime of theft to individuals, allegedly killed two or three people. we have held individuals here -- i held the individuals here involved in the sniper trials many years ago. we have to be prepared to fulfill that mission across the scope. that is why we are maximum-security, but it is quite a spread of individuals and behaviors. we deal with very serious people as well. some of the not ready for these programs of change. as i noted, we are here when they are.

host: jess and myrtle beach, south carolina. you are on the air. andler: i spent 30 years -- i'm retired down in south carolina -- in a massachusetts system. i know it was the state system, so a prison system, not the jail system. all thesebout wonderful things you are doing, but even my wife, in the gel system, you only have the guys there for 100 or something days. my experience, after they graduate from the jail, and are sent to real prison, they come in, and you have to classify them based on how violent they are. it is not as simple as everyone is going to reenter. they are all going to reenter, but most of them are substance abuse, alcoholics is the biggest , and unless you can correct

that, they are not any good to employers. they have to get their ged's, , they haveo go to aa to go to work, even though it is not required. if you are not going to get to the lowest level which would be maximum to minimum -- host: mr. green, what you make of his comments? this is a jail in montgomery county, what can you do if your average day is 50-100 days? how can you correct the haber in that short amount of time? guest: you look at the time you have. it is a snippet of time. if you have someone for eight hours, you can give them something they did not come in with. in eight hours, it is the information and resources available in our community in

order to engage it. prison is not my world. i have never worked in a prison. i can tell you this, there are 30 states and the united states that have really started focusing on justice reinvestment. that is at the prison level, where they are looking at and really studying what services jail.ave inside a justice counsel, and we are in the process right now. 30 other states have actively engaged, and i can tell you what we are looking at in maryland, we are looking at program opportunity, the length of stay. the motivation can be much different for a person who has light at the end of the tunnel and is a year away from release versus the person who is 10 years away from the release date. we are systematically studying that in american prisons and

have undertaken that in maryland. if there is an interest by the office if they go to the of gun control website, he can see the work that marilyn has done with the justice thre counsel, and look at work from other states around the country. that work is truly underway. host: good morning, eric. i used to be a correctional officer myself. i really want to say thank you to director green and what montgomery county is doing. not only for the inmates, but also how they treat the officers . we often forget about the people who spend the most time with the

inmates. the police make the rest, the judge makes the sentence, but the inmate spends the rest of their sentence with the officer. usually the officer is not really appreciated. see on tv -- people look down on correctional someers, and also reflect the on offices. look at the nation's capital, washington, d.c., the d.c. jail does not have proper retirement for the officers being i just wanted to say thank you, director, thank you for the job you are doing. officers are very important in the rehabilitation of inmates.

host: mr. green? , as thell staff are gentleman said, do a tough job every day. all the pieces working hand-in-hand, we were able to build a facility that gives them an environment to do quality work. our staff are absolutely exceptional. in our county, we tried to make sure we compensate our staff well. to those, much is given, much is expected. they do an incredible job. we have great longevity. our staff come, they stay. i cannot give you an average, but out of 524 full-time staff in the department of corrections, we have a considerable number that are business.ars in this we are very fortunate and proud of what we have cultivated.

our county has helped us colts of a really great staff and support structure. host: when you look at the figures, the cost of personnel at the jail makes up 90% of the budget. we spoke with a couple of employees at the jail, when we were visiting, and talk to them about what they do at the job center there. this is what they had to say about why this work is important to them. [video clip] victim of aually a crime. when i was in middle school, my ,randfather was an entrepreneur two robbers came to our home, and they shot and killed my grandfather. i was a victim of a crime. what i want these individuals to see is there is a face behind what you do, there is a victim behind it do. if i can help them go through what the men who killed my grandfather went through which , then i-life sentence

am doing what i was placed here to do. >> for me, it is very personal. my dad went to prison when i was 10 years old. he served at 15 year sentence. this is a personal for me. the statistics show that the children of incarcerated tend to jail at alarming rate. i want to break that cycle. host: two of your employees, mr. green, there, who helped with themes, trying to prepare for life after gel. you think it is important that it is personal for them? guest: i think everybody has their story, greta, and why you do this work. day.es come out every both of those ladies, and how they address the population, the things that they do, the passion they bring to the work. i think we all have our stories.

perhaps we don't always talk about them. for me, my story is i have been in corrections for 31 years. looking through the door, at a friend, someone i grew up with, and having him ask a question of me -- i knew your mom, you knew my mom -- why i took my fact that you took your past, now, what can i do to change that. that was very impactful for me in 1986. why don't we have more programs to help us change our lives so my story looks a little more like yours. -- one,ation comes from watching, and be involved in how we manage corrections over the years, and seized the opportunity to make the change now, and knowing what works. again, everybody brings a story. it is important what motivates

you. host: outland, a democrat in brooklyn. caller: it seems to me that there are overlapping trends that can be connected to some recent news. we have a very dysfunctional congress where people do not seem to represent the population for their fair share of power in the republican house. they cannot alight a leader that represents their voices. at the same time, there is a background of people convicted of crimes and an excessive number of people denied their vote because too many took a plea, instead of going to court, because they could not afford bail. we have an incentive by a government that can lower the apparent unemployment rate by having fewer people looking for jobs, and all the people who are taken off the streets are no longer counted amongst those seeking work.

ishave a trade policy that taking more and more work from .hese minorities manufacturing jobs have been reduced. we are creating the appearance that there is less unemployment then there is. oh denial, unemployment, free trade, congressional dysfunction, all of these things seem to overlap. the "new york times" cover this recently in july -- bipartisan pushed to builds to relax laws. host: do you have a thought on giving judges more discussion?

retion? guest: i do see this really strong bipartisan support in this area, this region, that we reside in, we have interest from democrats, republicans, people who want to see a change in how the system works, and the successes we are having. i see really strong support for outcomes, and not necessarily affiliations. i think that discussion provided to the judges is really an important piece of this change. , an: joe in south carolina independent with experience in the corrections system. what is your question or comment? caller: first of all, i want to tell you how i appreciate your show, and you. can you hear me? host: we can.

we're listening. thank you for that. caller: i was in a correctional facility back in 1980, right around there. i was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong person. i ended up serving less time than he did. anyhow, i got my ged when i was in there. have out of their and had three or four different jobs. each time, i moved out, i made better pay, i met my wife, i had a family. so, the correctional facility change my life around, actually. i knew i did not want to go back there. also, i went back into service , and i served over in iraq for two tours. my life around.

they gave me a chance. i just wanted to tie it in. and i want to thank everybody for the opportunity i had. int: let's move on to john washington, a republican theory go ahead with your comment or question. to labor localg 440 in seattle -- i did belong to it for 30 years. even though progressive is not a nice word anymore, that is what our union was. back in 1982 -- before 1982, our population of our union was guys, and50% white 50% women in my and minorities.

i did not work much for a couple of years. a lot of people dropped out of the union. about 1990, our union was taken over by the federal government, second line to the teamsters. our union was used to go reorganize labor constructors throughout the united states because we had such a fair way of giving everybody a job. host: can i ask you to get to your question or your point here for mr. green. theer: the main point is union, at least 440, was never prejudiced against anybody who did time. if you are willing to be a hard worker, you could come in and work, and maybe even start

as an apprentice. we had plenty of women, minorities, and if you did not mind working, we were good with it. ok.: can you talk about the union, is there a union role at montgomery county? unionizedare a workforce within my system. we have carpenters unions, and other unions, i believe the plumbers union, has worked with some of our workforce development efforts in helping education,training, and programming. i cannot tell you that there were jobs provided there, but they played a role in some of our workforce education. host: we are talking with robert maryland -- void, boyd, maryland. we are live in the correctional facility. we will talk with others,

besides mr. green, about what it is like an side, the changes they are making, the programs they have therefore inmates. preparing them for life after jail. we will continue throughout today's "washington journal" with this discussion. republicans, (202) 748-8000. democrats, (202) 748-8001. .ndependents, (202) 745-8002 a fourth line this morning for those with experience in a correctional system, (202) 748-8003. let's get more of your calls in this morning. before we do that, let's talk about where you are. for a mind our viewers. you are in one of the housing units, that is where the inmates sleep, do their work, and showered. talk about the cells. guest: i am in one of the direct supervision housing units that we utilize. footells are 70 square cells, they are two

person cells. depending on behavior, willingness to engage we single cell, as needed. you are out of yourself most of the day until 9:00 at night, which is the lock-in time for sleep. the next day, the program start all over again. , andu are in a unit perhaps behavior is an issue, there could be more in cell time . our goal is to get as many people as possible, based on how they treat staff and each other, into these therapeutic housing units, where we can really begin to help them concentrate on the issues that they had in their life, and the issues that brought them to our doors. host: do you find that getting

these inmates out of their cells helps with behavior? if they are in a cell for hours upon hours, in that small room, that contributes to bad behavior outside of the? guest: it does. i won't tend to say i'm an expert in that area. there is a whole body of study and solitary -- on solitary confinement. yeah, there are some people there are extremely violent. every daynt to paint this perfect picture. ks have some dangerous fold that we deal with. we need that sell to maintain behavior. it for the time that you need it, when they are acting out.

in our system, there is no such thing as solitary confinement, even if you are on a high lock-in status because of the hager, we are still there to deal with the issues. the case manager is present. the staff -- there is no benefit to us, and to the correctional system. a very few number for us. the benefit comes in therapeutic groups. that is what we really strive to do. host: mr. green, citing studies that have been done on solitary confinement. here is a story about that.

host: randy in michigan, a democrat, you are next. caller: thank you for taking my call. i would just like to say a couple of things. , we havest history been locking people up in rural areas. if you are educated, like me, i because i had smoked pot, and they did not want pot smokers there. if a local cop can take your house and sell it, that is profit for them. to look and see the statistics in the united states, and how may people we , versus howd killed many people are jailed the casa

pot. this is something i'm writing a book about right now. this is something i want c-span 2 adjust, why are we shooting people for something they don't die from deco host: were you able to follow that. guest: that is not my industry. follow the police. we have seen some equalization of marijuana in this county, the state, and across the country. i think that has to bear out. we have to follow the stats. we have reduced some of the incarceration on possession of small counties in montgomery county. all of those things have to be done based on a risk analysis, not just based on the crime, what is the risk to the community. how can we, at the same time, provide some treatment to individuals. the caller's exterior is not my experience. host: sherry in texas.

good morning to you. caller: i'm excited this is going on. educate everybody, if they have not heard of it already, the prison program inrial cleveland, texas. my son was incarcerated for drug use and sale. he graduated from a program in 2007. bringhey do is they people to one unit, interview this,if they want to do and it is grueling. they will go on to a prep program supported by baylor university. they learn to be a man. 95% of the prisoners do not go back during a certain amount of time. there are numerous men who have

startedut, and their own business. we support it, financially. there are business people who come in looking for these graduates because it is life-changing. my professor is a perfect -- my husband is a professor at sfa and volunteers. it is an amazing program. in thet they are doing cleveland unit. they started another unit in estes, texas. it is life-changing, not only for the prisoners, but anyone that gets involved. host: mr. greene? guest: it sounds like a wonderful program, a lot are popping up around the country. i'm not familiar with it, but i assure you, i'm a bit of a junkie for articles of successes in my industry, and i will look the. -- look that up. host: i want to build up another

issue and that is mental illness . you had a front-page story recently in "the washington post," "waiting in jail for help and dying." how are you dealing with this issue? guest: the mental health crisis -- i don't use that word at all lately. more is about 14% individuals in jails with a mental illness than there are in state hospitals and places where they perhaps need to be. it is a crisis in maryland. it is a crisis in many places. we are dealing with a population in a very collaborative manner. we do not create new systems inside our jail. we have a health and human

services department that helps us. you will be hearing from one of our staff that works directly with that population. i think we are doing better than most, but not as well as we would like. i talked about a 23% reduction in our population. that percentage that is left, that number that is left, is an extremely acute population. we are seeing persistent mental illness on a daily basis coming into our central processing unit. looking back over some data, when it was preparing for today, 60 percent of our population is homeless and mentally ill. how we are working to provide housing, as well as treatment, it is a real struggle. hundred 29 people today are taking medications. again, i'm proud of what we are

doing. criminal justice coordinating committee, as well , we are looking at our mental health processes in the county, what we can do to be more nimble, and serve this population. as a warden, there are things that rise to the top of your list they keep you up at night. it is the mental health thatation in our system really does that for me. it is not unusual to have someone who is in a serious crisis. we want to protect them from harm, from harming themselves. it's not unusual to have multiple individuals on a one-on-one status.

we have had to do two on one's at times. we are working through what i think is a really tough situation. nationally, we need to look at serious justice reinvestment in the system. perhaps it is not reinvestment, it is investment and what we can do to help this population. we can talk for a really long period of time about what happened with the institutionalization in the 1960's. it brought a lot of people to the doors of the american jails, and they are still here because the community functions did not stand up. i think we need to caution ourselves a bit. we start talking about mental health and the criminal justice system. there are a number of mentally it is at commit crime --

very low number, but what we are looking at are the number of cases circulating through our system. we look at the number of days spent in jail, escalation. we are trying to not only china from the criminal justice standpoint, and look at it from a crime standpoint, but look at it throughout the continuum of care, and how we can better assert ourselves into each one of those events to help , and keep them stable. we are getting our arms around it, and have for some time. we are looking at what is the next iteration of things like deflection. we talked often about diversion. divergent is when someone comes in our system, and we can direct

them from prosecution, get rid of the charge. deflection is not having the charge to begin with. across the country, we have officers to operate within our police community. our police officers in a verymery county -- large portion of them have that training. they do great work in the area of deflection. the number of calls they answer for service is continuing to escalate for them. things, looking at the system holistic leave. not just from the jail side or courtside, but community side. we are bringing all of these forces to bear. we will be making, hopefully, some changes in how we manage that population. host: of course, all of that

effort takes money. you have an operating budget of 71 million for 2016. as we showed our viewers earlier, 91% of that going to personnel. is federal that dollars and local dollars? guest: the majority of that is local dollars. we get some federal dollars in .erms of grants on the hhs side all of our staff that are employed, those are local dollars. it is an investment in people. we need people to manage corrections. you need social workers. you need individuals who are really helping to address the needs of the individuals. there is no equating how much money you throw at the problems to how well you fix it. it is how well you distribute those dollars, those people, and really following the science, the research, and the need, and

collaboratively bring it together. host: we will talk about how those dollars are just a rear in the montgomery county correctional facility, but we want to thank you for your time this morning and talking to our viewers. we will continue but the conversation. thank you, sir. guest: thank you very much for having me. thank you for taking a look inside our systems. host: we will continue to do so after this short break. about what inmates go through, and we will continue on with a look at the services for inmates to treat drug, alcohol, and mental health issues. first, during one of our recent visits, c-span's jennifer roth sat down and talked about inmates getting a job after release. [video clip]

work source a jobseeking program for inmates housed here. we were one of the first in the country to be housed in the jail, but not the only one. the earlier we can start preparing someone, the more likely they are to get employment. we begin eight months before the release. >> what we do is go to the units and recruit them. you can come -- you can sign up to come to our programs. what we do is go to the unit and to behe inmate, are soon customers, what they can do. onis eight months or less their sentence. it cannot be pretrial. they cannot have a detainer and another jurisdiction. those are the individuals

eligible for our program. weekrogram itself is a 16 curriculum. jobe are six weeks of readiness, six weeks of job search, and four weeks of personal development. our goal here is to get them job ready and life ready. have as much legal work experience. we don't have to explain that we have a criminal record. sometimes their educational level is not as high as your traditional job seeker. a lot of it is confidence. we prepare them to go and sell themselves and assured to the employer that i can do the job. >> it is good for them to have individuals come from the community and actually work with them.

individuals who they can see are willing to help them. it is important for the seeunity to come in and what we are working with. sometimes this can be a scary environment. people will automatically be afraid to deal with ex offenders. they can come in and see, this is a person that is here, they made a mistake, but now they are working to it opportunities to be of federal taxpaying citizen. that is the benefit of individuals coming from outside. host: we are back inside montgomery county correctional facility, about 30 miles here from the nation's staff oftalking with the facility about what they do at the jail there. it is a capacity of a little over 1000. in one of the housing units, we

chum.oined by kendra jo talk about reentry services. when you say that word, what does that mean, and what do you do? what are you offering? guest: reentry services is a really broad way to say any of thefor individual needs that members of our population have. reentry, by definition, is the process for someone returning back from confinement to the community. it is often thought of when people are returning from a peri incarceration. really, it can mean any time they were included in the custody of police, courts, rial programs. there is a broad way of looking at reentry. essentially it is assisting people with what they need for returning. host: what are some of those needs? guest: commonly, reentry means -- certainly, housing is a

problematic and challenging the to address.- need we also look at education and employment. research has shown, over the years, it is not actually the tangibles that make the biggest difference in reducing recidivism, it is looking at thinking patterns and focusing targeted intervention in the way the person perceives the world, makes value judgments, and choices. host: give us an example of how a program might work. let's talk about a mental health program or substance abuse program. facility, youthe heard director green talk about a number of our therapeutic communities. these units are designed to look focus on certain members of the population that have needs.

the program units are focusing in on different skills and developing insight. the program is self would be withed based, combined classes, and also release preparation. i reentry services unit does not function as a standalone unit. we are throughout the facility. as director green talked about, we tried to reach as many individuals as possible because the majority will be returning back. our approach is different than a structured program. host: we are inside the montgomery county correctional facility. you're hearing the doors open and shut. we are live inside one of the housing units there where you would typically see the inmates out of their cells, doing these isgrams that kendra jochum

talking about, whether it is preparation for a job when they leave or getting help with substance abuse. there are over 600 inmates currently at montgomery county correctional facility. they can house over 1000. we are taking your questions and thoughts about what these inmates need, and what it means for the community. do you work with the community outside the jail? guest: absolutely. with reentry services, you cannot do as a standalone effort within the walls of the facility. reentry is about returning back to the community, making those connections for the individual, and with the individual, prior to the release. we have a number of partners that we work with. montgomery county health and human services is a primary partner. we have a couple of connections with them. montgomery community college is

another partner. and, the work source job center is a core partner as well. host: we were showing our viewers a moment ago about some of the reentry services that inmates might need. one of them is food stamps. why is that important? stamps is reflective of a basic need. we all need to eat. onwhen a person is release, needsave competing further time and priorities. they have one less trip to make, one must appointment to make. through health and human services, we have a benefit specialist to work here full time to meet with individuals who we are working with, and she will assess their eligibility for welfare services including food stamps and medicare

coverage. food stamps is important to help with the basic need to eat when they are out. is a challenge for a lot of individuals who have had the impact of incarceration, both for the families on the outside, who are missing income because their loved one is on the inside in the facility, and is also a challenge for when they come out because they do not necessarily have the income coming in immediately with the challenge of employment. if they are eligible, we want to make sure they are connected prior to release. did: "wall street journal" an article about this, "extra defenders to get benefits." were1986 overhaul, they approved for getting benefits.

tender yocum, talk about the benefit of this type of program, but all of the reentry services that you provide. how do you track success of them? tracked verys is simply on who comes back and who does not come back. difficult,is a very complex formula to think about. we can think about immediate success following someone's release. if they can get past the first 4-6 months, they have passed the initial think or swim -- sink or swim test. long-term, if they can succeed on the 2-3 year mark without coming back into the system, that is the mainstay of reducing recidivism. nationally, two thirds of individuals come back through one system through supervisi

or new offenses. totried to stay connected them after release through social media, e-mail correspondence, and phone, as much of their willing and interested in communicating with us. supervision,th they are the ones who take the support strategy and supervision role as they enter the community. have a better sense of how they are succeeding in the community, or not. host: what you hear from former inmates when they are outside, when they get back out? what are they telling you are the greatest challenges for them? what is the most difficult part of it? employment.r, the challenges they face in applying for jobs, having the stigma of incarceration associated with them, those are frequent things that we hear about. the success stories really come

folks were prepared for that challenging came up with strategies and skill building to enhance their possibilities when they are in the community. other challenges they face, certainly housing comes into play. family dynamics is another underlying factor that we tend to overlook when we look at education and employment. family support is essential in someone's success. often that can be triggering their difficulties or contributing to their behavior and the first place, or just a matter of the support team in place for them when they come home, or the lack thereof. host: leading up to today's program, jennifer roth went to montgomery county correctional facility and sat down with a former inmate, who talks about his reentry into the community just last month. [video clip] >> just to know the people that i know, it was kind of a

reaction, he is coming out, but he will fail. everyone was like, don't do this, don't do that, making me .eel like you are going to fail at the end of the day, the reaction was not so bad. for one, the people helping me just like my employer, helping me out getting back in ing itmmunity, take it easy. dealing with the people where i'm living, they, little by little, we started going out. even though i wasn't locked up years and years, things change a little faster than they did before. little by little, they took their time, and got me back into the community, going to the store, simple things. going to eat together, so i feel comfortable. host: what do you hear therefrom from carlos?re

technology changes so quickly, cell phones, paying for things, etc., how do you prepare for that? guest: it is a particular challenge, the longer that someone has been incarcerated and away from the community. for three years, i worked at the local work-release center, and we would have individuals come , and they needed to know how to use the bus, how to use the cash register when they went to go make a purchase. the notion of smartphones these days, it comes second nature to all of us. these are underlying challenges that individuals may not even realize for themselves that they will need to navigate through. in conversations with their family and friends, if they can stay connected to the challenges on the outside. it is an isolating experience to be incarcerated and then dropped back into the community that you left, but does not necessarily look or feel the same way, whether in family and friend

circles, or the actual physical spaces that you go back to. host: let's take some calls. we will go to reginald in houston, texas. you have exceeded in the corrections system. go ahead. caller: yes. you will see that i am an excavation of -- ex- officer.nal they are handled as commodities here in texas. we lead the nation in prison incarceration and recidivism. i think this program is a very positive program. i was you would go to the state level. obama has changed the federal law. imi am my brother's keeper. we need to change this on the state level. i applaud what they're doing areuse the inmates here treated as commodities by the

corrections corporation of america. they will not like the positives of this reentry. that will take away from the investments on the stock market because they are treating these people like commodities. i believe that if you continue what you are doing here, america will be better off with this prison reentry you are trying to do. i applaud you. host: tender igo come what kind of help do you get -- kendra yocum, what kind of help do you get in your community? guest: on the state level, as the caller was mentioning, there is a distinct difference because of the population that our system works with, versus the local jail and pre-trial that we have. a recent effort that was popular ban the box."

maryland is very prominent to all different paths, particularly, they are advocating in annapolis for the state of maryland and other elements around expungement's and ways that jobseekers can have an easier approach compared to other applicants who may not have the history at that it's important to keep the theyrsation going so that are aware of the challenges being faced in the longer term repercussions. when we talk about justice reinvestment, that is where comes back into, in terms of the support of the population going back into the community so they don't end up being a burden on different social systems. host: paul in maryland, go ahead. say, i i would like to have been in the correctional system. i know that when i see articles

like congress passing laws taking away benefits from people that were found to reenter, you have to say to yourself, the people who decide the laws and vote on them, they are not affected by this. they have to understand directly affected, but they are affected anyway as far as we are these people going to get food from? they will go back to do whatever they did to get in jail, whether it was to sell drugs or steel or things like that. you can't say, well we want to help people and we want these people that are injured and come out of jail and do the right thing, when you cripple them. they can't vote so they have no importance. host: we will take your point. guest: i think this whole notion of redemption and the difference between a convict and returning