cities in the country. you saw in chicago the other day a nine-year-old boy was killed. tomorrow two young men will be sentenced to death for the death of a girl. when these two young men decided to -- the father was arrested and now he is in jail for the rest of his life. that level of violent activity on the streets is something that has to be looked at and addressed. it has a lot of different reasons why it exists. it has a lot of different answers to it, but that kind of thing that support for kids in the neighborhood to get up and get to school and move on to the places they are to be going, which is harvard and other places.

and i am spending a lot of time in the neighborhoods talking to these young men. one of the things we do is a call-in, where we at these young men on probation to come into the courtroom, i am there, i have a u.s. attorney district attorney, atf, fbi, every bit of might in the world that the united states has standing behind on my left. on my right i have sister mary sue, i have mental health professionals, job professionals, and we look at these men and say you are important to us, we love you. you might have made bad decisions. that is ok. but here's the thing -- you got to stop the violence. if you do that, i am going to put you first in line in front of every citizen in the city. you will be the most important thing in my life, and i will

give you what it is that you need. if you choose badly and go back out and you pull out a gun, i would not be much of a mayor if i was not responsible for the safety of all of the children. after have to incarcerate you, and we will incarcerate you for as long as necessary for you to decide that you cannot do that. we will try to let these young men know they are critically important, we know who they are, where they are, and that has been working. not helping raise consciousness level of violence in all iterations is bad irrespective of what community it is in. getting that to the higher level is somewhat of a challenge, because not everybody cares in this country about poor young african-american men who are being shot who are shooting. we care about a lot of other stuff, but i do not find it is as easy as i thought the if i told people that 625,000

citizens were killed in this country since 1980. that is more than all the wars in the 20th century. when i say that, people yawn. to me it is a moral outrage, and i need to focus attention on it. mr. bennet: talk more about you said a moment about it is working to a certain extent. mayor landrieu: i increased the amount of money on reparation. i have invested in art, music, anything we can do to touch kids, like food, music. if you come to the city, everybody has a horn in their hand. that is part of our culture. one of the great musicians giving the world a great gift -- if we can find a way to educate our young children, either through music, arts, sciences,

all of those things, massive investments in that. we are physically rebuilding every school in new orleans. where rebuilding 38 schools to give children great places to be in. i have job training and trying to identify all. the city working, creating pathways to a job, to anchor institutions in the city. you live in a place that has something like johns hopkins bayou, but in the shadow of these major institutions, you have people living in the neighborhood who do not work in the institution. we're taking universities, hospitals, and say when you come to work, driving in from suburbs

and go to the parking lot, look around the neighborhood and identify the people that live in this space. they pay that property taxes that give you the tax break. you have a problem if you enough people to work and they have a problem that do not have enough people to work, can't we build two new medical centers, and they are just didn't to people who do not work. in those institutions, you can be a med tech, can be a physical therapist, you can go to xavier, and we are trying to find a person with human resource person and creating a pathway where they can get from here today. mr. bennet: what is the bottom-line in terms of the crime rate? mayor landrieu: the murder rate is as low as it has been since 1971. that is a good thing. the 1971 rate is still eight times higher than the national average. one of the things that mayors of america are talking about, and we visited with the department

of justice about that, you have to focus time and resources. i will give you a couple numbers. congress used to invest more money in substance abuse, mental health. everybody talks about community policing. it is easier to do when you have officers who are trained well. if you do not have a lot of officers that are not trained well, they create stress and strain. the cops program -- if you think of front end and back end, there is a targeted investment in helping human beings become better, and you had targeted investments for early child in education, head start, the kind of things that helped families stay together and be strong that give them opportunities and economic opportunities. you have less of a problem. officers were trained in the right way, and the kind of procedural justice we should have now, you would begin to produce a better result. we have -- this is a very

serious problem a very deep problem, one that will take a long time. i would caution not to get stuck in the argument about whose fault it is that we got here. as i would like to say, i do not know who will win that argument. i do not whose fault it is, although i have my ideas. i know whose responsibility it is to fix it. because we are in the moment where the country seems to have an open mind about it, the conversation should be tough and constructive and we ought to move all forward dramatically, and have that opportunity if congress can do it. we are to take them up on it over and tried to get them some really direct answers to questions of what am i supposed to do about it. mr. bennet: let's go to the audience here. is there a mike? >> good morning. my name is charles curtis. i work at a public charter school.

the quick context is "the atlantic" ran an article that focused on charter schools in new orleans in particular. i am curious about the content of that article and what is the mayor's position on that, and quick background, the content of the article talked heavily about the no excuses, in many ways exclusionary policies of a lot of charter schools in general, and it talked specifically about the practices of schools in new orleans, and i'm curious what the mayor's position and how those policies, inclusive of suspension, they relate to that front end, back end discussion of prison and what we do on the front end in terms of what we

do. mayor landrieu: you say you work in a charter school? >> yes, sir. my question is about the mayor's position on the position policy, which is much more around the mayor's position. mayor landrieu: a things, because it was a big fight and because what is the proper governance model that will give our kids the best opportunity. post-katrina we went to a different system of educating. before, we had a school board from a centralized system. the board did not function well. a result was kids were going to schools that were not teaching. the schools could not get their brains off of adult issues. they wanted people to think they should focus on, generally

employer-employee relationships. it was a union, and if i could, before the end of this yea, 100% of our schools will be charter schools. i will give you the results. the graduation rates are going up, dropout rates going down, and the achievement gap between whites and blacks has closed and the over five years. the reasons those things are working is not necessarily because they are charters, but because there's some level of parental choice, accountability. the principal and teachers can run the school, and it seems to be producing a good result. what he is into is the suspension policy that existed in public schools and charter schools, and he is right about that. this is about justice. it is about how a kid gets in trouble and is suspended first and asks questions later. that is wrong. you should not do that. what we are doing in the schools

in new orleans is reworking this policies because you have to make sure that the children have the resources they need to learn how to have their behavior formed in a positive way. that is separate and suspend first rather than have the ability to work with them over time is just wrong. in the charter schools, one of the challenges was how you deal with special needs kids. they were not handling that very well. they were handling the expulsion policies well. that has less to do whether they were charters or typical schools, as warehouse schools treat children who are in trouble and he help. all schools across the country

need to get better with that. what is happening in new orleans, nothing unique about us, except we and better food, music, and fun than anybody else -- [laughter] mayor landrieu: getting else pretty much the same. mr. bennet: can we take one more quick question here. >> thank you very much. i do not work in the sector. i'm just here to learn. very impressive presentations. thank you very much. the risk of taking us off topic, i heard about your experience as a state legislator, running a state, a city. any plans for the future -- congress, white house? mayor landrieu: no, not thinking about that. but thank you for the offer. mr. bennet: let's go back here. mayor landrieu: somebody told me she did not like me, she will not vote for me, she was waiting for me to get out of office. >> hi, i am with a lawyers' committee, also a fellow louisianan. i want to know about constituent support.

what are your messaging strategies when you're talking about your constituents and trying to build consensus about the reforms that we all know are necessary, but there is a high crime level right now? mr. bennet: we will have to leave it on this question, and it is a great one to end on. mayor landrieu: i will go deep. this room is full of really smart people who have researched a lot and i would put in the category of advocates for a big idea. that is really important. when you get to level i work on, which is really low and is on the ground, that is what mayors do. unlike a congressman or senator or even a president, when you are away from policies, when a policy is enunciated on the city level, you see the people who get affects. if you do not believe me, try to raise the parking rates in new orleans. you want to see people get emotional about something in

america? try to take away their -- what i am messaging, i going to tell you something that i know. if you tell anybody in the city and it does not matter whether they are ritual poor, african-american, or white, especially in poor african-american neighbors that you are going to do something that will make them unsafe, they will say -- it is not a theoretical thing. the challenge is for me from a messaging perspective how to get people to think about theoretically what is right, practically, and what makes them safe. if you ask someone that has an idea, they want to say yes to, and now i will raise her property taxes to do it, find early childhood education, do something else regarding drug or substance abuse, i will build a mental hospital, all of a sudden

when it is not theoretical anymore, you have to figure out how to do it. that's the hardest thing. that will be the biggest challenge. in this country we have a moment where there is an open-eyed mind to fix this problem, and i would encourage both sides to listen and hear each other because you can move the ball. generally we do not move in huge footsteps. we moved in incremental ways, and then we look at what we did and if it was good, we keep going. i would seize that moment, but in order to do that from the advocates on both sides are will have to not just advocate, but

come up with a how to, the who, when, and how much, and who is going to pay. if you can answer all those questions and you can get the public writ large a good sense that you will produce a better product, they will say yes to that every day. it is getting through that forest of very difficult thickets and weeds in a way that does not vilify the other side that will get you to a better place, and at the end of the day, it is about making those citizens that are now overincarcerated, a lot of them can come back to the community, but they have to have a place to

go, and it takes money to get that it is a problem that should be solved. now is the moment. we should seize it. let's see if we can get somewhere. mr. bennet: thank you very much. mayor landrieu: thank you. [applause] >> thank you, james. the joyce foundation is based in chicago. one of our concerns has been that of gun violence, and we focus on reducing access to guns. we believe that is one of the solutions to reducing violence in our communities. i am pleased to be here, so please to be able to be able to partner with "the atlantic." i wanted to open with a video. it is a news story from wgn. if we can get the video to run, please. [video clip]

>> this person was just 15 years old, shot more than seven miles away at seventh and -- >> everything we heard about the victim has been policy. >> they were riding in the back seat of a friend's car. they heard shots fired. >> the driver went back and the victim was bleeding. rushed her to the hospital, where she succumbed. >> those near the crime say that is an nice area. >> we have been complaining, trying to get something done. police have been out here so many times. we thought the next step was somebody was going to be shot. >> my heart goes out to her family. i do not care what she may have been into.

she did not deserve this. no one deserves this. especially at such a young age. they have not even begun to live, and they are dead. that is heartbreaking. that is heartbreaking. >> thank you. we just heard mayor landrieu talk about the fact that mayors may have the best job in the world, but it is one of the hardest jobs of the world. you are on the front lines like nobody else is.

i want to take this conversation on the specifics to the personal, because we have with us this morning a mayor who is very focused on the top level policy issues, but also very personally engaged in the challenges of violence in her community of gary, indiana. mayor, i want to hear from you about what this particular case meant to you and your own personal experience with the issue. mayor freeman-wilson: absolutely, and thank you for the opportunity to share with you and all of folks here. you are right. it is one thing to talk about it at a theoretical and policy level, but to go and stand as i did at the funeral and look at her family, many of whom i have gone to school with, and talk about the significance of her death, not just individually, but us as a community to stand in an emergency room with a mom who is in fact questioning her dead son, because he was supposed to be at home, and he had snuck out of the house, to stand at a funeral and see a

mother's two teenage sons who had been walking to their grandmother's house, and then for me to be robbed at gunpoint, it gives you a much more practical view, even more of a practical view than i had as a prosecutor or a judge, as a public defender, to understand violence is really doing in our community. >> one of the things i have learned from is what mayors do for each other. have you tried a similar approach? mayor freeman-wilson: to see it from a theoretical standpoint, we have had -- we are preparing for our third call-in, and it does have an impact on the community to say to the young man who is most likely to be involved in violent acts, to say to them, we want to help you.

we would rather that you achieve your greatest dream, and we would give you the tools, we will send you to the front that line. but at the same time, we have to stop you from making the wrong decision. if you make that wrong decision, we have to hold you accountable and send you to the front of that line as well. >> one of the things that has got to be really hard is that people in the community, when

they see a certain level of violence, are likely are i would not be surprised to say they can do whatever they want to do to stop the violence in my neighborhood. is that what you hear from certain folks in gary? mayor freeman-wilson: that is absolutely the case. you hear this dichotomy between the police and the community and the lack of trust. not everyone in the community feels that way about the police. not everyone in my community feels that way about the police. to the extent that we have different types of expectations, different types of relationships, that is why i really refer to the safety as community restoration so we can have a dialogue about what it means to have police as a part of the community solution, but the solution really is about education, it is about housing, job opportunities, it is about neighborhood watch and other

block clubs and things that have historically happened in communities to allow communities to really police themselves. >> how do you mediate that conversation we had folks who say let the police go at it and other from saying we are being harassed and being unfairly so? mayor freeman-wilson: but i remind people is that there is currently a handful of folks who are wreaking havoc on the rest of us. we want to not just stop that handful, but we want to provide opportunities for them, and at the same time that they have a responsibility to make their community better. whether it is cleaning up on an abandoned property that is adjacent to them, rather than waiting for the city has limited resources to clean up those properties, whether it is having tutoring programs for some of the young people who have had challenges in education, there

are things that the community can do to improve its own plight. >> let's close with my interest, the availability of guns. indiana has some of the weakest laws in the country. there's a pipeline of guns that come into our committee. how do you feel in gary about the role of the state and federal legislation as it pertains to easy access to guns? mayor freeman-wilson: that is a real challenge. you can go to a gun show in indiana, and get whatever you need and sell it and pass it to whomever. as we look to trace guns, as we look to limit guns, there is a vital role of law enforcement in

gun safety. >> and prosecutors and legislators? mayor freeman-wilson: i would say prosecutors and law enforcement because i am not very hopeful about the legislators in the state of indiana. [laughter] >> there seems to be a shared thing. i close with that comment, that i would like to close with that, and thank you for the tough job you do. it is a tough job, and we are proud to support you in any way we can. applause for the mayor. thank you. [applause] ♪ >> good morning. i am looking forward to a lively conversation from our talks backstage. i'm the editor of atlantic.com,

and i have with me a distinguished panel. one of many of us would agree the most significant in the most least visible has been what happens in the interplay between defendants, prosecutors, and judges. so i have with me here this morning two prosecutors and a judge, former judge. to my far right is adam fox, an assistant district attorney for the suffolk county in massachusetts, working primarily with juveniles. also a judge who was the outset when the crime rate began to rise in the 1990's, and cyrus vance, the district attorney for a county in new york. both of our prosecutors come to us with an interesting history. both i believe were defenders at one point.

briefly, for adam, i am going to ask, what drew you to the dark side? i will start with you. >> an easy one to start out with. i wanted to be defender for all the reasons that we are sitting here today. i knew jail was not working, i knew that the people who were in their looked a lot like me, and i thought the way i was going to help that situation was to become a defender. and i learned two things while having worked for a defense attorney to law school and being a certified defender as a student. one is you have a least amount

of power in the courtroom. that was the one thing either. the second was i was not fixing any of the ills that brought my client into the system by absolving them from guilt. i wanted to help those individuals make sure they were not come back to court, not just on that one individual case, but in cases that came along in their path. >> this is what we would expect. cyrus, i believe you said that prosecutors are the stewards of the integrity of the system. you have recently overseen the new york state commission on sentencing and made recommendations where you think things should be changed. implicit in those recommendations is where something power should accrue within the system. where do you think --

>> it accrues to prosecutors differently in different jurisdictions and different than the federal system. new york state sentencing laws are not like those in washington state. the powers of the prosecutor really rest principally in discretion, whether a prosecutor decides if he or she is going to charge this crime versus another or whether that prosecutor decides a charge not be brought. but where i think sentencing should land is i am comfortable with having judges have the power in broad ranges. in new york we have some of the widest ranges in the country. for nonviolent, judges have the discretion to give one to 25 years, and i think it is