Obama Calls for Revamping Criminal Justice System in NAACP Speech
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ABC News(PHILADLEPHIA) — In a speech before the NAACP Tuesday, President Obama advocated for reforms to the criminal justice system, arguing that it disproportionately issues harsher sentences for minorities and places an expensive burden on taxpayers.
“Our criminal justice system isn’t as smart as it should be. It’s not keeping us as safe as we should be. It is not as fair as it should be. Mass incarceration makes our country worse off and we need to do something about it,” the president said at the NAACP Convention in Philadelphia.
The president pushed several specific proposals – including lowering or eliminating mandatory minimums for non-violent drug offenders, asking the Department of Justice to begin a study on solitary confinement, developing job training and re-integration programs at prisons, and calling on states to reconsider laws that prohibit convicted felons from voting.
The president directly addressed the state of prisons across the country and pointed inappropriate pop culture jokes about prison rapes that should no longer be tolerated.
“We should not be tolerating overcrowding in prison. We should not be tolerating gang activity in prison,” the president said. “We should not be tolerating rape in prison and we shouldn’t be making jokes about it in our popular culture. That’s no joke. These things are unacceptable.”
Obama lauded Sen. Rand Paul’s, R-Kentucky, work on criminal justice reform, saying the Republican presidential candidate has been “consistent” in advocating for reform.
Prior to his speech in Philadelphia, the president met with several formerly incarcerated individuals to discuss their history and reintegration following their release, the White House said
The president’s speech before the NAACP convention is part of his week-long effort to highlight the disparities in the criminal justice system. On Monday, the president commuted sentences of 46 non-violent drug offenders. On Thursday, the president will travel to El Reno correctional facility in Oklahoma – becoming the first president to visit a federal prison.
“I’m going to shine a spotlight on this issue because while the people in our prisons have made some mistakes and sometimes big mistakes, they are also Americans,” he said. “We have to make sure that as they do their time and pay back their debt to society that we are increasing the possibility that they can turn their lives around.”
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