ms. gertner: public safety issues. that is right. mr. thompson: i am going to want to give any of you and opportunity to ask a question to our panel -- an opportunity to ask a question to our panel. nancy, you had proposed -- or mentioned a proposal last week that you have a marshall plan in your community as one of the other forms of addressing the backend of this. what does that look like? mr. foss: -- ms. gertner: david came up with the idea, but the notion is you can't just do things going forward. there are things you have to do going forward to deal with these issues, but there are consequences to the causal state. and the consequences are communities who have been best the mated -- who have been decimated by whole generations of men absent. there is an intergenerational problem, in economic problem, and educational problem -- an economic problem, an educational problem. we now have to rebuild communities that have been decimated i mass incarceration. it really is a rebuilding process. it is really -- we are at a very we are at a v

ms. gertner: that can work in one of two directions. you can be accountable for the public in particular areas. criminal justice is determined whateverime du jour, the newspaper feels you have to do something about. you are accountable, but you need some independents. arguably, the federal system has independents. second to the mandatory minimum discussion, you need a system in which players balance each other so if a prosecutor comes to me with a charge that is ridiculous and i find out more about the case, i want to be able to say that the charge may be appropriate in the case of a dealer of megatons, but not this kid. that is where judicial discretion is an anecdote. there is a balance. right now, the system is skewed. skewed thisrugs has completely. like ato sentence people column of figures. discretion to enable me to say, i cannot sentence you to that. mr. foss: the problem with accountability is you are assuming the accountability applies to everyone and everyone has the opportunity to be involved in the process of electing a pro

ms. gertner: that can work in one of two directions. you can be accountable for the public in particular areas. criminal justice is determined whateverime du jour, the newspaper feels you have to do something about. you are accountable, but you need some independents. arguably, the federal system has independents. second to the mandatory minimum discussion, you need a system in which players balance each other so if a prosecutor comes to me with a charge that is ridiculous and i find out more about the case, i want to be able to say that the charge may be appropriate in the case of a dealer of megatons, but not this kid. that is where judicial discretion is an anecdote. there is a balance. right now, the system is skewed. skewed thisrugs has completely. like ato sentence people column of figures. discretion to enable me to say, i cannot sentence you to that. mr. foss: the problem with accountability is you are assuming the accountability applies to everyone and everyone has the opportunity to be involved in the process of electing a pro

ms. gertner: that can work in one or two directions.an be accountable to a public that once blood in, you know, a particular area. we used to get around about how a criminal justice policy is determined by the crime. whatever hits the newspapers you have to do something about. so you are accountable on the one hand, but you also need some independence. arguably, the federal system have that independence. that gets back really to the mandatory minimum discussion. you need a system in which different players balance each other. so that if a prosecutor comes to me with a charge that is ridiculous and i find out more about the case, i want to be able to say that charge may be appropriate in the case of a dealer of megatons, but not this kid. so that is where judicial discretion plays in as an antidote to a prosecutor because they have to be accountable, too, for what they do. right now, the system is skewed. i am assuming the war on drugs has skewed this completely. i used to sentence people like a column of figures. by the time i got to a