or over-incarceration my personal opinion. next week, next month we are bringing together 23 prosecutors for major cities in a coalition called prosecutors against gun violence because we want our voice is das to be heard in the debate about what's working to fight gun violence and what's not. what's happening is strategies are being shared office to office and crime prevention and how to make sure the strategies deal with preventing crime are being shared. i think it's making a difference and i look forward to what we can do together over the next couple of years. >> cy, before you move over to just one quick question. the number that you cited that dropped from 71,000 to 51,000 is tremendous and hardening. -- and it is heartening. it is as surprising or noteworthy to me is the numbers that michael gave in terms of the nation's ranking in the world in terms of the number of people that are incarcerated. could you talk just a little bit more about what you think are the factors in that decline before we go to jeff? >> this is

the war on drugs has created an incarceration nation. with too many people in prison for too long serving no useful benefit to society. one of the major reasons for expanded jail and prison population over the past 30 years is the use of stiff mandatory minimum sentencing for nonviolent offenses. prison costs now absorbing nearly one-third of doj's discretionary budget. 30%. the cost though go far beyond simply the money it takes to incarcerate over 2.3 million people. the true costs are human lives, mainly of generation of young black and latino men and women who serve long prison sentences and are lost to their families and communities. organizations across the political spectrum support truly bipartisan sentencing reforms such as the smarter sentencing act, and we thank you for that. that act would address the ongoing crisis in our federal prisons by reducing the prison population. the sfa is sponsored by senators durbin, leahy, leahy, treachery and representatives of bobby scott and raul leopard were. the bill also has considerable c

mass incarceration. i'll go to that next. we also focus on legitimacy. how i describe it for our city is that we jump up and down by the fact that we've had some of the lowest homicide rates in the history of the city in recent times. 197. that's because baltimore used to be closer to 400. being down to 197 is a significant drop. i applaud -- that was before i walked in. not that i've had an impact on that but i just say that. but i applaud the fact that we've gotten down to that 197. but, if that community is no better than what it was before the 197, what do you have to cheer about? if you still have the poverty levels, if you still have the same vacant homes, if you still have the same impacts that that 8-year-old kid, their life is no better than what it was before the 197, what do you have to celebrate and to pat yourself on the back? so we're shifting in what we're doing. what i want to move our law enforcement team away from is away from enforcement, because people always tell me, tony, stay in yo

and secondly for those people have been incarcerated i think we do over stigmatize them. we do hurt their ability to come out of prison and get on with the gainful, productive life. i wholeheartedly embrace the sentiment of that collect. >> host: gelled in florida. >> caller: good morning. i have a question for professor kennedy. some of us look towards affirmative action us to blacks entering university circuit. i happened to be one who graduated from a major university, white major university in the state of ohio. this was before affirmative action. far too many times there is nothing said about those of us who were participants in the collegiate atmosphere, collegiate i guess academia, that existed before affirmative action. what is his position? what is his position on some of us? >> host: joe, tell us your experience. what you're did you graduate? where did you go to school? what was it like for you? >> caller: i graduated in 1959 from kent state university, and the makeup of the school at that time, i guess it was probably around 7000 students which there was no mor

currently incarcerated in the u.s., or around that number. this was in 2012. 1 out of every 108 adults have been incarcerated. 38% black. blacks make up 13% of the total population. you describe yourself as a prison abolitionist. what does that mean? what would you like to see happen? guest: i think it means that everyone calling in is going to yell at me but also -- at me, but also, what it means, in many ways, this system is not working. it's not working for any of us. it is not protecting public safety, which is its stated goal. most people who go to prison are rearrested within three years. so, this is not a correctional system. this is not something where -- go in in and thene and then are less likely to do the things that put them in there. it's a system where people go in and then come out and have many fewer opportunities to do the things that will help them move forward and change their lives, in terms of jobs, in terms of housing, especially for people of color. i think also the fact that prison is traumatizing and teaches a crimina

there is another tragic outcome incarceration binge. almost 6 million of our citizens have lost the right to past criminal a conviction in many instances for very low level crimes. upon release from prison, these citizens work. they pay taxes, they live in our communities, and they raise families. but millions cannot vote. one out of every 13 african-americans of voting age has lost the right to vote. that is four times the national average. but millions have no input on our political process. that is unacceptable. we commend senators ben carden and rand paul for their leadership in this area and we urge the passage of the democracy restoration act, a bill that would restore voting rights in federal elections to illions of citizens. ending discrimination should be and historically has been a bipartisan issue. just consider the multiple voting rights act extensions that we've had. consider the laudatory fair sentencing act of 2010. these would not have happened without bipartisan support. only with bipartisan support can we make much nee

america incarcerates more people than any other country on earth. one in every one hundred us citizens is behind bars. the state of maryland is no exception - the prisons here are full. how's it going? sebastian walker for al jazeera. >> nice to meet you. >> i'm here at the roxbury correctional institution to meet dominique stevenson. she helped start a prisoner-led program called "friend of a friend." it teaches long-term prisoners how to mentor younger inmates coming in with shorter sentences. >> the fact that there is no economic development, there are no jobs, and that leads to the despair that you're talking about. and so you still have to deal with that reality, that the same things brought you in here, exist out there for them. >> and i believe that the corruption that exists, particularly where i'm from, from out of baltimore city, from a lot of political officials going all the way up to the corrupt president of the united states, for real, because i believe no one actually care about the poor no more. you know it's all about the rich getti

there has been enough over -incarceration. it is time now that we make the dream real and we through our legislative efforts as illustrated by state after state, can now follow suit, reduce our prison populations. lower crime and save taxpayer money and more effectively herald the highest ideal s of our country. thank you. >> thank you, senator booker. congressman gutierrez. >> thank you chairman durbin, ranking member cruz. thank you senator durbin for inviting me to testify. thank you senator durbin for advocating for justice and equality. i have always valued your advice and counsel, your leadership on the judiciary committee and as chairman of the subcommittee have contributed greatly to our nation in protecting the civil rights of all of us. i came here to say thank you. before i begin, i want to expend my heart felt condolences to the family and friends of michael brown and eric garner. i think we can all agree that the loss of life is a grave tragedy. as a parent, i want to say to the parents that i am so sorry for your

on behalf of the men that are incarcerated, i want to apologize for that. and thank you for sharing that with us. >> my reaction was sincere appreciation that he could be that sensitive or that charitable and take, in an odd sort of way, some ownership or some responsibility for the maladaptive actions that this other person did. my son evan was about love. he wrote this campaign speech, a class assignment, one of his last class assignments. and one of the things he said in the campaign speech is, i would tell those who bring harm to others, to go to church. >>> next on "lockup raw: killers among us" -- >> i think the greatest fear the public should have is some of us are going home. >> a freed convict commits murder on the outside, and then again back on the inside. >> i held him in a choke hold and my friend started hitting him, beating him up. >>> we've heard the warnings from prison staff. >> they're going to come back to our communities. they're going to go back and live next to you or him or me. i want to make sure i've done everything i can so when h

in the u.s., 1.5 many people are currently incarcerated in the u.s., or around that number. this is from 2012. but one out of every 108 adults has been in prison or jail in the united states. 93% male, 7% female. and in the prison system itself, 38% black, 35% white, 21% hispanic. 38% black, blacks make up 13% of the total population. you describe itself as a prison abolitionist. what does that mean? what would you like to see happen? >> guest: i think it means that everyone calling the it was going to yell at me. but also what it means is in many ways, this system is not working. it's not working for any of us. and it's not protecting public safety, which is its stated goal. most people go to prison our rearrested within three years. so this is not a correctional system. this is not something where people go in and then are less likely to do the things that put them in there. that's a system where people come out and have many fewer opportunities to do the things that will actually help them move forward and change their lives, in terms of jobs, in terms of housing, especia

but serbia incarcerates a much smaller portion of its citizens. one out of nearly every 700 versus one out of every 130 in the united states. >> at the moment, a total of 1,200 inmates are being held here which is 2 1/2 times more than the prison's actual capacity. >> while some parts of cz have been modernized, much of the prison shows signs of age of one especially haunting section is completely abandoned behind locked doors. the execution chamber. >> we went down probably three, four stories underground to an area best described kind of like a scene out of "aliens." >> they literally have puddles of the water on the ground and they have boards that are slightly elevated. and you kind of do a balancing act to cross these boards down this old corridor. and then you just come upon an open room with a wall. >> translator: we are currently in a room where executions used to be carried out. prisoners on death row stood by the wall. the firing squad stood here. >> translator: it had a squad of ten executioners. some of whom had loaded weapons while ot

currently incarcerated in the u.s., or around that number. this was in 2012. 1 out of every 108 adults have been incarcerated. 38% black. blacks make up 13% of the total population. you describe yourself as a prison abolitionist. what does that mean? what would you like to see happen? guest: i think it means that everyone calling in is going to yell at me but also -- at me, but also, what it means, in many ways, this system is not working. it's not working for any of us. it is not protecting public safety, which is its stated goal. most people who go to prison are rearrested within three years. so, this is not a correctional system. this is not something where -- go in in and thene and then are less likely to do the things that put them in there. it's a system where people go in and then come out and have many fewer opportunities to do the things that will help them move forward and change their lives, in terms of jobs, in terms of housing, especially for people of color. i think also the fact that prison is traumatizing and teaches a crimina

and it's not the only positive thing mckeown sees in his incarceration. >> i was a catholic priest for a long time. i was then and i am now, you know, a person of faith. i was certainly a person of faith when i was active as a priest who had a very dark secret. and i don't have that secret anymore. i don't have to hide that. i've asked god to take care of many he and so far he said, okay. i'll do that. >>> coming up -- >> what in the world is this? >> i have no idea. >> it's key to survival. prison food has plenty of critics. >> how's the food? >> terrible. >> everybody complains, you know, everywhere you go somebody is going to complain. >> my question is where's all the beef at? our identities unprotected. nearly half a million cars were stolen in 2012, but for every car stolen, 34 people had their identities stolen. identity thieves can steal your money, damage your credit, and wreak havoc on your life. why risk it when you can help protect yourself from identity theft with one call to lifelock, the leader in identity-theft protection? lifelock actively patrols your sensitive, perso

do tois nothing they can better advance -- in that incarceration. to have a conversation about what it means to helping the poor. when they do that, they allow themselves to get comfortable with these realities. we have to make the we have to be willing to make them hopeful. >> you know -- i have accompanied six people to execution -- here's some hope. people are good. it's not like they've really thought this through and have come out racist or saying, we have to kill the criminals. they have not thought very much about it. my hope -- i don't know i can still be doing this if i was getting out there and going into all these places, texas, alabama, everywhere and people rigid, closed, and races. they do want to reflect on what we are doing in this library tonight, this community discourse, where we are taking something and reading about it, talking about it, digging deeper into it. growth, inf communal terms of understanding who we are, counters, don't you think, the individualism. when people do something wrong, we say we have to hold that individu

i noticed that some who were incarcerated, they really couldn't figure out why they did that. i'm just hoping that a lot more some covered. >> why they did kwha they did? yeah, the emotional flooding when that occurs, the executive portion of the brain stops working and a lot of times there won't be a memory of what exactly happened. it's like having a blackout when somebody goes into that intense emotional reaction. >> thank you. >> councilmembers senhaux? >> i want to thank you for your presentation and being here today. i don't have any questions, just comments. i appreciate you giving me a better perspective on issues with veterans. a lot of times you see them on the street and they look drunk or high and we don't think of what caused them to get to that point such as examples you gave us and the correlation with disabilities and how the disabilities perspectives in finding employment and housing opportunities. besides the horror stories i was happy to hear there are great success stories with the va and getting treatment and helping people get off the street and house the

. >>> coming up -- >> when i got incarcerated i declared war on the state of indiana. they gave me this excessive sentence as a result of my crime? i'm giving you excessive violence as a result of my anger. so i decided to just rage. >>> i wasn't expected to be on msnbc with this camcorder in my hand in a night cell doing night vision recording and talking to you guys, man. i wasn't expecting any of that. but that's how life is. life is full of surprises. life is full of change, abrupt changes. you know, unexpected changes. >> unexpected changes would come to describe our relationship with darren bailey, an inmate we met at the indiana state prison. he was one of a handful of inmates allowed to use a personal camera supplied by our crew used to record intimate thoughts in the privacy of his cell. he even shared some thoughts about the crew themselves. >> you got susan, you got alex in wonderland, and all those other guys, man. i don't know their names, right, but they're cool. man, these dudes, they're super. and they're all from california, man. can you believe that?

the us has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. it's probably at least 1 million in jail who are not a danger. we are trying to change that because we think it is a horrific waste of money. >> tell us about a case that the equal justice initiative has worked on. >> sure. yes. so actually just yesterday we got a ruling. convicted convicted of two murders in birmingham in 1980, and he was innocent but could not get the legal help that he needed. the state said they found the gun that matched these two murders. he needed a gun expert but could not get one. his lawyer found found a guy who was a civil engineer who was blind in one eye to be his expert. of course, he was convicted and sentenced to death. .. is one example but we're also doing work on these cases that are very involved in that. but it now has 250,000 people for crimes committed with children. 10,000 children and any given day and are five times more likely to be the victim of sexual assault. 3,000 children are condemned to die in prison. we want to challenge the supreme

we also know that the levels of incarceration that we see today are unsustainable. they are unsustainable financially. they are unsustainably sociably. and to be honest with you, they are on sustainable -- unsustainable morley. -- morally. we know this is bigger than just the criminal justice system. we know this is about jobs, housing, and education. we know all those things matter, and one of the best things we can do to help to fix the criminal justice system is to make sure people have jobs. this president has created over 10 million jobs. but let's talk about the criminal justice system, and things that have already been done. things that i would hope you're doing in your districts to move forward and to help solve the problems we see in the criminal justice system. one thing is the school discipline guide that was put out by the department of education's and apartment of justice. -- department of justice. we know that youth of color are disciplined more severely than other youth in their schools. this guidance helps to educate -- health educators help to fix t

we also know that the levels of incarceration that we see today are unsustainable. they are unsustainable financially. they are unsustainably sociably. and to be honest with you, they are on sustainable -- unsustainable morley. -- morally. we know this is bigger than just the criminal justice system. we know this is about jobs, housing, and education. we know all those things matter, and one of the best things we can do to help to fix the criminal justice system is to make sure people have jobs. this president has created over 10 million jobs. but let's talk about the criminal justice system, and things that have already been done. things that i would hope you're doing in your districts to move forward and to help solve the problems we see in the criminal justice system. one thing is the school discipline guide that was put out by the department of education's and apartment of justice. -- department of justice. we know that youth of color are disciplined more severely than other youth in their schools. this guidance helps to educate -- health educators help to fix t

has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. one in every three black male babies born in this century is expected to be incarcerated. dow agree? what does this tell you about the way these individuals are apprehended, incarcerated and through the court system? guest: in terms of how they're apprehended because of the disparities and african american or hispanic is more likely to be stopped because again these implicit biases. additionally, in the court system we've seen a lot of research and media coverage on the sentencing guidelines. crack cocaine versus cocaine -- versus crack or marijuana, a tougher sentencing guidelines. so things such as that which are again correlations with poverty. african americans and hispanics have a higher percentage of poverty so they're likely to be able to afford marijuana or crack which again the sentencing guidelines are skewed. so it's again a systemic problem with respect to who is being profiled and stopped, how those interactions are going. and then the justice system. ublic defenders are

nothing they can do to end mass incarceration. nothing they can get great a different conversation whether it means to be helping the poor. and when they do that they allow themselves to get comfortable with these realities. we've got to make them hopeful and be willing to do something that's uncomfortable. >> i had this sense, because i've accompanied six people to execution, and i'm out on the road talking to the american public. here's some hope. that people are good. it's not like they've really thought this through and have come out racist or come up, we have to kill the criminals. they haven't thought very much about it. and my hope is that i don't know if i could still be doing this if i was getting out there and going into all these places, texas, alabama, everywhere, and people were so close and so rigid and so racist that they couldn't hear. i find they are going to want reflected what we are doing in this library tonight, this kind of community discourse where we have taken something and we are reading about it and talk

very famously cane is incarcerated in birmingham and he writes on a scrap of paper a letter from birmingham jail. and he really defends the movement against critics who say the movement should move slower. the movement should wait on freedom and justice and democracy. so one of the best lines from his letter is king arguing that in the future the young men and women being incarcerated and brutalized and arrested in birmingham are going to be remembered as heroes and he says that they are going to be remembered as heroes for bringing the nation back to those great democracies dug deep by the founding fathers. in 1963 is also the year that german shepherds and fire hoses in birmingham, that were powerful enough to take the bark off of trees. john f. kennedy said that he was there, he tells the press that he is nick him the scenes that he thought that he witnessed in birmingham of german shepherds and fire hoses and over 1000 young children as young as eight years old being incarcerated as they try to desegregate birmingham, alabama. and then this is also kennedy's finest moment, june 11, 19 t

can't necessarily incarcerate them. in this country you really have to go to far extent to be able arrest them for just making a threat. melissa: okay. >> reminds me of major hasan. i don't even want to call him a gentleman of the person who shot up the fort hood. >> fort hood. >> that was outrageous. that guy was given signal every day, yet the army ignored that. we just attacked the cia viciously over the last couple days. i'm not saying i am for waterboarding. i had an argument on this show. at the time we need them the most we shouldn't be attacking them. melissa: jedediah, what do you think? >> look at preparation for the future. look at this guy's record. you can't incarcerate him but certainly monitor him. they have received number russ warnings from islamic state this is dangerous time. i asked is the united states prepared for something like this? when they receive warnings something like this may happen, what happens in that time period securitywise. melissa: okay. >> what does security do to keep these people

the man was incarcerated. he was there. the sentence was imposed upon him.it was hard, though there were probably tragics he left behind him, when he came to know you as lord and savior, lord, we know that things changed. this is one of the aspects that i consider brings about a sense of human dignity to life of incarceration. >> and we just ask and pray that you bless the family, comfort them with your words and comfort them, god, knowing that you are the resurrection and the life. father, we pray all these things in thanks, in jesus' name amen. death is death no matter who you are and as a result of that, like in this case, i think it was freedom. >>> next on "lockup: extended stay" -- >> hey, baby! >> how are you doing? >> sherman moore sees his daughter for the first time in more than a year. >> you probably didn't think i was coming. >> i knew you were coming. they told me last night. she means the world to me. she's my reason for not giving up. you know, i was thinking this morning how much that i love my daughter. >>> for the roughly 360 inmates servi

lead to behavior that result in incarceration. these were the key issues, these are the issues we are going to be looking at. i mentioned all 15 seats are full, we still have one open seat and that's seat 16 reserved for a member of the board of supervisors and i invite any of you or all to apply. we would be glad to have you. we only meet once a month. you can send an aid if you can't attend. it would be a way to have a voice in our community. i encourage you for anyone who has an interest in the role of mental health in our community. i would encourage you to participate in our board. i hope you have a good holiday. thank you. good night. >> public speaker: good evening, board, my name is is maria ralta for alex nieto coalition. i'm disappointed that the first resolution was cropped and adjusted to meet this ideology that this is not happening in san francisco. i'm really disappointed in supervisors that wanted to amend the original version because not only am i a supporter for justice for alex because i'm married to his first c

do tois nothing they can better advance -- in that incarceration. to have a conversation about what it means to helping the poor. when they do that, they allow themselves to get comfortable with these realities. we have to make the we have to be willing to make them hopeful. >> you know -- i have accompanied six people to execution -- here's some hope. people are good. it's not like they've really thought this through and have come out racist or saying, we have to kill the criminals. they have not thought very much about it. my hope -- i don't know i can still be doing this if i was getting out there and going into all these places, texas, alabama, everywhere and people rigid, closed, and races. they do want to reflect on what we are doing in this library tonight, this community discourse, where we are taking something and reading about it, talking about it, digging deeper into it. growth, inf communal terms of understanding who we are, counters, don't you think, the individualism. when people do something wrong, we say we have to hold that individu

and inmates are brought in there in the last year of their incarceration. drug issues, some are mentally ill, some have other disorders. >> yeah. >> and the statistics show that if somebody goes through that program, and then reenters through a reentry program, a community-based therapeutic program, there's a 75% reduction recidivism. >> here's the thing, though, i think you probably know this to be true. there is, i think, among a lot of politicians in this country, there is a reluctance to advocate for anything other than prison or in the extreme cases, anything other than the death penalty. god forbid you appear to be soft on crime. how do you combat that? >> well, i think that we need to have a national conversation about our criminal justice system. america has to wake up to the fact that this is something that doesn't only affect a few people. 60 million americans, 20% of the population have some sort of criminal record, including misdemeanors. we all have to take a look. and we have to communicate that. the winds are changing, it's more progressive o

people who are incarcerated before trial are far more likely to plead guilty. they often face more time in jail than the length of their potential sentence. >> if you are detained even briefly pretrial, there is a provable dramatic increase in the length and severity of the ultimate outcome of a criminal case - just because you're held pretrial. judge truman morrison serves on the superior court of the district of columbia. for years he has advocated for bail reform. >> two-thirds of the jail population in the united states of america tonight are people awaiting trial. people who our law presumes to be innocent because they have not yet had their trial. those people have not been put there because they have been found by any process to be too dangerous or too unlikely to come back. they're almost all there simply because they don't have the money to purchase their freedom. >> we wanted to speak to inmates who find themselves in that position...but baltimore's jail refused to allow us inside. we were granted access to the second largest jail in maryland: the pri

which indicates the degree to which it's possible for us to think smarter about who we're incarcerating, how long we're incarcerating, how we're dealing with nonviolent offenders, how we're dealing with drug offenses, diversion programs, drug courts. we can do a better job of -- and save money in the process by initiating some of these reforms. and i've been really pleased to see that we've had republicans and democrats in congress who are interested in these issues as well. the one thing i will say, and this is going to be the last thing i say, is that i -- one of the great things about this job is you get to know the american people. i mean, you meet folks from every walk of life and every region of the country and every race and every faith. and what i don't think is always captured in our political debates is, the vast majority of people are just trying to do the right thing. and people are basically good and have good intentions. sometimes our institutions and our systems don't work as well as they should. sometimes, you know, you've got a police department that has gotten into bad

>>> coming up -- >> when i got incarcerated, i declared war on the state of indiana.t gave me the excessive sentence as a result of my crime. well, i'm giving you excessive violence as a result of my anger. so i decided to just rage. about a biologic... this is humira. this is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further damage. this is humira giving me new perspective. doctors have been prescribing humira for ten years. humira works for many adults. it targets and helps to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humi

and now tolerating mass incarceration. the reason we don't care about youngblood was going to jail or prison is that we have not cared about this distinction for decades. we have work that has to be done . we have this project where we are trying to put up markers to reflect where the slave trade florist. -- flourished. in montgomery, we have the confederate monuments. we have 59 monuments in montgomery the two largest high schools. if you come there 10 months ago you would not find a single word about slavery. we want to mark these spaces where the slave trade florist -- flourished. we want to mark the spaces where there was a lynching, and the whole town participated in a lynching. a lot of the people who were lynched were lynched for social transgressions. they went up to the front door of somebody's house rather than the back door. they lacked too loudly outage of. -- at a joke. if we do not talk about it, we are going to continue to run into these problems. >> you point to something really big. i am reading a book "li