to get an advocate to come up here, an attorney like brian stevenson [indiscernible] come up in your until the department of corrections, [indiscernible] have documentation that proves it is what you say it is in contrast to what you said the propaganda of the movement says it is. juan: you mentioned pastor kenneth glasgow, who is also joining us from montgomery, the founder and national president of the ordinary people society. welcome to democracy now! can you tell us about the situation of the prisoners in alabama right now, what you're seeing as a member of a faith-based group about the responsibility of those on the outside? >> thank you for having me. what we're seeing is the prisoners -- first of all, we want to give them all of the credit and the applause we can. they overcame religious barriers, racial barriers, geographical barriers, and also they have overcame incarceration barriers. and by overcoming those barriers , they were able to organize, lead, and initiate this prison in 40 toer 24 states 50 different prisons. what they have done is made as on the outside who are o

if you don't know about the work brian stevenson does, shame on you.my students in community college read this book because it is the essence of mass incarceration and the injustice that continues to exist in our society, documented in a palpable way and i encourage you to learn more about his work, the question i have, brian stevenson, equal justice initiative, this is not a paid for commercial. i am getting back to one of the questions i thought was a question we would address tonight that we didn't and it ties in again with the discussion of technology and the technology we didn't discuss tonight and the technology of cameras, the body cameras police are taking and using and some police departments in baltimore, police have body cameras so i am interested in your reaction to the pro-plaps and cons of body cameras in this world of police and minority communities. >> let me say this real fast, talking about the issue of criminal justice, when it comes to this administration i can say one thing for sure. the accountability component when it comes to po

brian stevenson, who is the author of just mercy and the founder of equal justice initiative has set a bit, with we ignore his detailed account at our peril, so we will not ignore it. please welcome me lawrence. >> last year after charles and president obama said that slavery is america's original sin. it is a pity it took so long for a president to say that. it was our first african-american president who did so. but it did not make it nonetheless true. as i have been bested in this book about mansion in alabama have gone back to the early history of slavery and followed it. one thing that i find important are crucial to it is the role of sexuality and slavery. in the hundreds of years, the 300 years of slavery, the slave masters would come down and essentially have their way with the women in the slave quarters. by the time of the civil war there is a large mixed bug population in the south. in millions and millions of people. with mixed blood. when i was doing the book i remember is in montgomery. and i met this kernel. he was black and he had a white wife. wife. i thought that is

brian stevenson said, we have never really confronted the legacy of slavery and racial injustice hased on all of our ability to see each other's layering. the legacy of slavery. how you see it and how we confront it. tim: for me it is frustrating. i don't know where all my senate colleagues go home, but i go home to an inner-city, i love my community, i love my city, but what folks don't understand is they talk about things like they are far away. they don't understand these kind have compounded upon each other generation after generation. slavery, one of the most violent periods of terrorism in united states history, was right after reconstruction, there was massacres on american soil. black business people, black elected -- massacres. and then on top of that, being replaced with the vicious white supremacy of jim crow, that reflected american policy. from the g.i. bill to housing, all of these things were put forth in a time -- we celebrate fdr's alphabet soup, but these were often district -- restricted or denied to african-americans. i see the legacy of bigoted housing policies t

brian stevenson recounts -- quote -- ian's mental health unraveled. he attempted suicide several times and each time he hurt himself, his time in solitary was simply extended. i remember being brought to tears by a number of passages in brian's book and i profoundly agree with his concluding assessment that the true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, the condemned. when it comes to fairly distributing justice in america, congress has long failed. the central test of character. with this bill, this senate has a rare opportunity to right some of the wrongs that have too long plagued every step of our criminal justice system. and we need to step up and take up and move forward the sentencing reform and corrections act as well, an important and broad bill which would reduce mandatory minimums and give judges more discretion in sentencing. in this effort we have a broad coalition of democrats and republicans and a diverse group of faith and reform and advocacy groups and in president obama we h