to work together to get this done. thank you very much. [applause] >> before you go, not a question, but we are pleased that you are doing the listening tour that you are, and engaging so many people throw the country. we wanted to offer you a list of suggested stops from our state partners, the resident organizations here in this room, that would welcome a chance to welcome you to their communities. you are keeping me busy so i can't get under trouble. thank you. >> thank you, dr. carson. [applause] >> all month, we are featuring our studentcam winners in c-span's video documentary competition for middle and high school students. this year, students told us the most urgent issue for the new president and congress. our second prize, high school winner, a 12th grader from

michigan. oak is a student at royal high school. she believes criminal justice and minimum -- mandatory minimum in hering is an issue documentary titled "incarceration nation." >> we have the highest incarceration rate in the world. we are above russia and cuba and kazakhstan. our prison population has boomed to sevenfold over the last 30, 40 years. the population has gone up less. why is that? >> i am a neck's offender. i have been three years incarcerated. >> i have done 13 years. like, i never want to go back to prison anymore in my life. daysdidn't feed me for 14 three times.

i knew how to miss a meal. consequence in significant ways of what has been called the war on drugs, to what was a widespread perceived fear of the impact of narcotics, and this war on drugs was in many ways racialized. >> the laws were targeted, frankly, low-level street dealers and mainly from the african-american community, and inner cities. professor michelle alexander wrote a book called "the new jim and suggested that the number of people incarcerated, particularly african-americans, was so high that it seems to suggest that some kind of unfair discrimination was going on in our criminal justice system.

>> racial minorities in this country are still racial minorities. if you look at their percentage representation in the general society in -- and compare that to the percentage of their reputation -- their representation in the prison. relation, it is higher. >> you are trying to apply the law as a judge. that is our job and our responsibility. so we can't just change the law, or not follow the law, simply because of a particular social study that occurs. that doesn't mean that we can't consider the need to impose sentences that are fair. -- mandatory minimum sentencing started in 1951, which put a mandatory sentence on a first-time candidate. back was repealed in 1970.

the sentencing reform act was passed in 1980 four, intended to increase the consistency in federal sentencing. >> mandatory minimum sentences means a sentence that must be a certain amount of incarceration time. ofthe increasing use statutes with mandatory minimums has contributed to the number of people in prison. >> they have never provided the resources or the service, they have always been more interested in locking up and throwing away the key than they have in running an efficient criminal justice system. crime.y, tough on if he does that, there will be a reversal from decreasing the number of people incarcerated in the united states to maybe another increase am i going significantly higher than we have. we had 2.1 million

people under some sort of criminal justice sanction. >> when you take a way a judge's ability to make those kinds of is, yous, what you do have a one-size-fits-all punishment that doesn't fit everyone at all. >> for a sentencing judge not to be able to really synthesize all of that information, and use it to fashion an individual sentence, i think is frankly and injustice. up 25% of thekes world's population but 5% of the worlds population. we have more prone -- more people in prison than on college campuses. what is the solution? >> there was proposed legislation that was going to really look at mandatory minimums, but the legislation has kind of died on the floor. i think that would have been a start. >> one of the things we are

advocating is something called presumptive parole. presumptive parole is the idea , once a person has been sentenced, it is presumed that when they become eligible for parole, they are eligible for parole. the only thing that would keep them in prison is some behavior while they were incarcerated, or some other factors which are extreme, which made it clear that they should remain behind bars. >> i didn't know how to use a cell phone. my first cell phone, i got into thousand four. 2004. there are a lot of things, people who have been in prison for a long time, we need to bring those things and do some outreach and can encourage these

individuals to get their high school employees, get their associated degrees, get them want to stay out of trouble, and the punishment must stop. .hey are ready to come home we should accept them home and open up the door and give them that same opportunity to succeed . >> they were taking inmates downtown to the community college at 11:00 at night and bringing them back at four, teaching them welding, electrician, teaching them building trades. they eliminated all these programs. had programs that would help people when they left prison, to get good jobs. and the state, the eliminated them all. if you ever want to break the cycle of going back to prison, you have to give them something while in prison. you have an opportunity to educate them.

they have no other choice in here, but to go to the classes, do these things. take advantage of it, use this. >> to watch all the prize-winning documentaries in this year's studentcam competition, visit stud entcam.org. >> ahead of the u.s. strategic command, general john heighten will testify about threats from russia and north korea. watch live coverage from the summit -- the senate armed services committee tomorrow. later in the day, also on c-span3, afl-cio's president will discuss trade, infrastructure and workers rights. that is live from the national press club at 1:00 p.m. eastern. >> saturday, book tv is live

from the 15th annual anadolu's book festival in maryland. beginning at 10:00 a.m., coverage includes a discussion on income inequality, with catherine eden, author of "two dollars a day: living on almost nothing in america come coke and the author of "coming-of-age in the other america." then, a discussion on criminal justice. an author on his book "race and justice on death row." at noon eastern, discussions with author of "pilgrimage: my searched for the real pope francis." then, the author of "playing to the p.m., thomas0 dolby author of "the speed of sound: breaking the barriers between music and technology." watch the book festival live at

3:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2's book tv. and public economist health official talks about potential changes to the medicaid program. the conversation includes access to health services in rural areas, and the republican efforts to repeal the affordable care act. the alliance for health reform hosted this ballroom. forum. d this >> good afternoon. welcome. , president and co-ceo of the alliance of health reform. for those of you not reform -- not familiar with us, we are a nonpartisan nonprofit. we have been around for 25 years. our mission is to inform policy makers on how