President
Barack Obama on Thursday became the first sitting U.S. president to
enter a federal prison, doing so as part of a push to reform harsh
penalties for nonviolent offenders.
Obama
spoke for about eight minutes at a medium-security facility in El Reno,
Oklahoma, after visiting with six inmates convicted of nonviolent drug
crimes.
“When
they describe their youth, these are young people who made mistakes
that aren’t that different from the mistakes I made, and the mistakes
that a lot of you guys made,” said Obama, who has freely admitted using
marijuana and cocaine in his youth.
“The
difference is that they did not have the kind of support structures,
the second chances, the resources that would allow them to survive those
mistakes,” he said, according to a White House pool report.
President
Barack Obama on Thursday became the first sitting U.S. president to
enter a federal prison, doing so as part of a push to reform harsh
penalties for nonviolent offenders.
Obama
spoke for about eight minutes at a medium-security facility in El Reno,
Oklahoma, after visiting with six inmates convicted of nonviolent drug
crimes.
“When
they describe their youth, these are young people who made mistakes
that aren’t that different from the mistakes I made, and the mistakes
that a lot of you guys made,” said Obama, who has freely admitted using
marijuana and cocaine in his youth.
“The
difference is that they did not have the kind of support structures,
the second chances, the resources that would allow them to survive those
mistakes,” he said, according to a White House pool report.
“We
have a tendency sometimes to take for granted or think it’s normal that
so many young people end up in our criminal justice system,” he said.
“It’s not normal, it’s not what happens in other countries. What is
normal is teenagers doing stupid things. … And we’ve got to be able to
distinguish between dangerous individuals who need to be incapacitated
and incarcerated versus young people who … given different
opportunities, a different vision of life, [could thrive].”
During
his historic drop-in, Obama toured a 9-foot-by-10-foot cell that houses
three inmates and noted the prison has “enormous overcrowding issues.”
Footage of his prison tour and an interview with journalist Shane
Smith will be broadcast on an upcoming episode of the HBO show “Vice.”
The
United States has more prisoners than any other country in the world
and is believed to also have the highest per capita incarceration rate.
In 2014, the federal prison population declined for the first time in 34
years. There were 213,901 federal inmates in November. About 2 million
more were in state or local custody.
“My
goal is that we start seeing some improvements at the federal level and
we’re then able to see states across the country pick up the baton,”
Obama said, according to the pool report.
The
president has been on a tear this week advocating for criminal justice
reform, commuting the sentences of 46 people convicted of drug crimes
Monday and asking Congress to pass legislation rescinding mandatory
minimum sentences that tie the hands of judges.
On
Tuesday, Obama urged better conditions in prisons at the NAACP
convention in Philadelphia, specifically denouncing overcrowding, gang
activity and rape.
“If
you’re a low-level drug dealer, or you violate your parole, you owe
some debt to society,” he said during that speech. “But you don’t owe 20
years. You don’t owe a life sentence. That’s disproportionate to the
price that should be paid.”
On
Wednesday, the president praised senators at a press conference —
including Republicans Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah — for
sponsoring legislation that would reduce sentences.
Obama
has long pushed to roll back the so-called war on drugs and harsh
treatment of crack cocaine offenses, legacies of Presidents Richard
Nixon and Bill Clinton.
Citing
prosecutorial discretion, the Obama administration has allowed states
to regulate retail recreational marijuana stores despite federal law’s
ban on marijuana possession, and in 2010 he signed legislation narrowing
the gap in penalties for crack and powder cocaine.
“We
have a tendency sometimes to take for granted or think it’s normal that
so many young people end up in our criminal justice system,” he said.
“It’s not normal, it’s not what happens in other countries. What is
normal is teenagers doing stupid things. … And we’ve got to be able to
distinguish between dangerous individuals who need to be incapacitated
and incarcerated versus young people who … given different
opportunities, a different vision of life, [could thrive].”
During
his historic drop-in, Obama toured a 9-foot-by-10-foot cell that houses
three inmates and noted the prison has “enormous overcrowding issues.”
Footage of his prison tour and an interview with journalist Shane
Smith will be broadcast on an upcoming episode of the HBO show “Vice.”
The
United States has more prisoners than any other country in the world
and is believed to also have the highest per capita incarceration rate.
In 2014, the federal prison population declined for the first time in 34
years. There were 213,901 federal inmates in November. About 2 million
more were in state or local custody.
“My
goal is that we start seeing some improvements at the federal level and
we’re then able to see states across the country pick up the baton,”
Obama said, according to the pool report.
The
president has been on a tear this week advocating for criminal justice
reform, commuting the sentences of 46 people convicted of drug crimes
Monday and asking Congress to pass legislation rescinding mandatory
minimum sentences that tie the hands of judges.
On
Tuesday, Obama urged better conditions in prisons at the NAACP
convention in Philadelphia, specifically denouncing overcrowding, gang
activity and rape.
“If
you’re a low-level drug dealer, or you violate your parole, you owe
some debt to society,” he said during that speech. “But you don’t owe 20
years. You don’t owe a life sentence. That’s disproportionate to the
price that should be paid.”
On
Wednesday, the president praised senators at a press conference —
including Republicans Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah — for
sponsoring legislation that would reduce sentences.
Obama
has long pushed to roll back the so-called war on drugs and harsh
treatment of crack cocaine offenses, legacies of Presidents Richard
Nixon and Bill Clinton.
Citing
prosecutorial discretion, the Obama administration has allowed states
to regulate retail recreational marijuana stores despite federal law’s
ban on marijuana possession, and in 2010 he signed legislation narrowing
the gap in penalties for crack and powder cocaine.