Commercialism that he gets to be unbearable. I dont know what to do without cspan. I love it. It is on my tv all day long. Thank you. Email us, or send us a tweet. Join the cspan conversation. Like us on facebook. Follow us on twitter. At New York University law school, current and former federal prosecutors discuss strategies for reducing crime in a time of budget cuts. Report that argues for changes and how the performance of prosecutors is evaluated. This is an hour and 15 minutes. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Im going to start with reef introductions here it i will make a few introductory remarks. Well engage in a conversation of the role of federal prosecutors in the 21st century and open up to questions. I will start in the middle and whooduce the vice chairman served over four years for the general. Attorney the closest to me is paul fishman. U. S. Attorney in new jersey. Paul served at least one term as the chair of the Advisory Committee that is an executive committee of u. S. Attorneys that meets regularly in washington and provide great leadership in that role. Next is ken. The u. S. Attorney in the Eastern District of louisiana, new orleans. Remarking to him has accomplished more in his first year as u. S. Attorney that many of us hope to accomplish in our entire terms. He has done great programs. Ken, great to be here with you. Next with the striking white hair is my older colleague. [laughter] barry is the u. S. Attorney in kansas. What is wrong with kansas . Nothing. Everything is good there. Barry and i were in the same Orientation Group or pledge class as we call it. Barry has had a great run as u. S. Attorney, engaging in outreach with local Law Enforcement in kansas and one of the leaders in terms of civil rights as a. As well. Finally is doug jones. His work led to the report. A former u. S. Attorney general in the Northern District of alabama. He spoke to a large group of u. S. Attorneys about his work when he was the u. S. Attorney, his prosecution of a cold case in his district best and from a bombing of the Birmingham Baptist church and the murder of four young girls in the tragic incident. He handled the execution of ku n involved in the bombing. It was an aspiring speech. Adding to know doug has been a great thing for me. That is our panel here this morning. [applause] let me kick this off. On the u. S. Attorney general in florida. When they asked me to participate in the Blueribbon Panel whose work has led to the report today. This report is a very important voice at a very important time in the refer may she and of the federal criminal justice system. There are a lot of factors that are coming into confluence here and created an opportunity in. Pace at this report in this moment of time is an important voice in that effort. I want to thank the Brennan Center for inviting us to be a part of this. We want to make sure that we do that. What is it to be a prosecutor in the 21st century . What is it to be a federal prosecutor as we enter the 21st century . Maybe for decades are hundreds of years. The model was the prosecutor sat in his or her office for a long time. Times have changed in that regard. Sat in their office and waited for agents or Law Enforcement deputies or fbi agents to bring an investigation to the prosecutor. The prosecutor would look at it. We charge a case. Move forward with the goal of trying to get as much prison time as possible for the crime in question. The reactive model. That model has been changing for the better part of the last four or five years. Surely after confirmed, attorney general holder give a speech in which he had a remarkable line i think. One that has guided me in other prosecutors. The u. S. Attorney and assistant u. S. Attorney must be more than a case processor. The u. S. Attorney and assistant attorney need to be in need to be a Community Problem solver. Theythat vision in mind, said about creating a strategy for communities in the United States. It rests upon an expansion of the prosecutors role. Are responsible for the enforcement of the prosecution of federal laws. That is our bedrock sensible and some we take seriously every day. One leg of the three legged it stool. People come home to their Home Communities at some point. It we dont figure out a way to support reentering offenders and reduce rates, we will not make communities safe to hear it a shift away from convictions and length of sentencing to is the community you are serving more safe today because it is your turn on the watch . Goalsth dakota with these in mines and with the strategy in mind, work is my colleagues create afice to strategy. As i came in and looked at my role as improving Public Safety, at theuck at that time daunting crime problems that faced American Indian to leave on reservation communities. When you think that a native american female baby in her one and threeas a statistical chance of being sexually assaulted at some time in her lifetime, that is a Public Safety problem the u. S. Attorney should care about. Help of my colleagues and input from the communities themselves talking to the consumers of Public Safety we were attempting to supply. It has had this bedrock of strategy. To do what i could to make them part of the community. It was hundreds of miles from a office to those reservations. Were not in a position to place a prosecutor permanently. But we would be there on a monthly basis every six week meeting and leading disciplinary teams, training Law Enforcement, meeting with the key may need the, and starting a dialogue. Community,with the and starting a dialogue. I put that requirement into the performance work plans. If they wanted to continue to advance and get races and be successful, they would have to hit those benchmarks of engaging with those communities. We have seen results over the last four years. We haveer of cases assigned additional prosecutors to those communities, we are bringing her cases and removing more of the more dangerous folks from those communities. We arent stopping there. We are also working hard to support viable Crime Prevention programs. Years, he hashree six or seven times a year gone to the high school and middle school at an indian reservation and north dakota and met with middle schoolers and high school is to talk about challenges they face and talk with them. Stay away from drugs. This is what Domestic Violence is. These are the challenges of sexual assault. Wear your seatbelt. Things as simple as that. Juvenilees in our system one of those kids he has interacted with in that other setting, those kids are embarrassed. They dont want to see him in the courtroom. They want to take to heart the lessons he has given them when it comes to speak at their schools. That is an example of a Crime Prevention program that i think has a potential for success moving forward. That is an expand in north dakota. A small office. A small district. We have shifted the way we do this nest. Well hear more from folks about what they have done. I want to start with the dog. He is the lone informer attorney general on our panel. Were talking a little bit of prosecutors. Your lens is broader than the rest of us. You have been involved in these issues and some of us. To this point . We are interested in hearing your views on that. Thanks to the Brennan Center for the panel and the work on this program and the work they do in general. It is amazing the way they can have a voice of progress particularly in the area criminal justice. It has been an honor for me to be involved. There are two things i think that michael said that we ought to take note of. Reduced. E, crime has we are seeing a continuing drop in clients. Everything about that is great. That isnd aspect connected is we incarcerate 25 of the world prisoners in this country. Those are connected. Enoughnel is not naive to think that the aggressive prosecutions over the last 30 or 40 years have not contributed to the drop incline. They certainly have. The flagortant to show and that they are being aggressive. Budgets see the the countrys fence millions of dollars annually to incarcerate individuals. Overwhelmingly, the majority caps off authority, but some 40 of the prison population is africanamerican. Theres something skewed with those numbers. Folks have started to look a little bit smarter on what we can do to maintain that level of security and even reduce crime further. At the same time, not send entire generations of people to prison. I first began my career as an assistant u. S. Attorney general in 1980. It was in a day when just as the war on drugs we remember the war on drugs. A term that i hate. A war implies someone is going to win and someone is going to lose. We are still fighting a war on drugs. We will always fight a war on drugs. The fact is during that time, both politically and with the department of justice, things began to change. The term that weve heard for her generation four generations became a smaller part of the prosecutors role. We had mandatory minimums that congress decided they needed to show their constituents have tough they were going to be. Im not criticizing by the way. It had its place at the time. Aspartment of justice the decades wore on, congress continued to act. Thatf the byproducts of was in the federal system, almost every crime you have seen has all the sudden found its way into the federal code of criminal conduct. Used to be dont make a federal case out of it. That used to be a big deal. You make a federal case out of something. Now you make a federal case out of just about anything. The have been vocal about federal criminalization of our nations laws. As a criminal code expanded, so did the role of federal prosecutors. He had more crimes to deal with. Now you not only half prosecutors who lack the judges. On so did before those guidelines were advisory, it was it was a getting assistant u. S. Attorneys to learn how to exercise discretion. They didnt have any. The department of justice sent in the guidelines that required amended their offices to seek the highest senate possible, even on plea agreements. That has helped reduce crime. The budget has busted. Some of you people have gone to prison because of it. I think it dates back a little bit longer. I know at least during the last 1520 years you have seen the department began to do programs were u. S. Attorneys would not just supervise their assistance and make sure that they were aggressive and prosecution. One of the more Famous Program money went into communities to help neighborhoods with afterschool care. Things that would keep people off the streets. Slowly seenors have their role more as not just the lead prosecutor, not just the ,hief Law Enforcement officer but was introduced as the chief Law Enforcement officer of the district. The u. S. Attorney role is much bigger than just simply enforcing the law. We have got to figure out ways in which we can reorient it. The guidelines as well as the priorities the u. S. Attorneys office. That would take a lot of doing. E talk about Climate Change theyre talking about Climate Change. So are we. It is just a different climate. Is going to take some courage from both our political leaders as well as the prosecutors regardless of the administration. A bipartisan effort to come up with new solutions that dont require prosecutions and incarceration. It will take congress in the way they look at budgets. One of the things i know all u. S. Attorneys have faced is in their budgeting have focused on specific areas that they want to see more prosecutions of. Your budget was geared toward those. You had to send money for new prosecutors in the area of drugs and firearms in terrorism. Whatever the case may be. Congress is going to have to loosen up. Having i think i think they are still having a difficult time understanding their role. Revenue sense of discretion. They dont have to just look at a case and say, this fits within this guideline. That is what i will recommend. They will look at the same factors that a judge might look at under the cove. At that point i think we are beginning to see a lot of framing. I think the attorney general is a huge step in the right direction for federal prosecutors. Make no mistake, we have a culture change that we have to address not just within the department, but within our political system and communities. Every budget in the country is by all of the Law Enforcement and incarceration and prison system issues that we face in this country. Thank you. The points you make about the budgets is an interesting one. I have heard it discussed this way. It resonated with me trying to do business in a tough budget time. When you know the federal prison budget is one third of the entire department of justice budget and if that is projected to grow in the near future, that money is going to come from somewhere. Its good to come from our offices. The choice is not between mandatory minimums or shorter sentencing. The debate is between the status quo mandatory minimums and less cases being done on the front end. That stars do bring into question the risk of safety to communities. We had to devote strategies to address that moving forward. Have taken steps over the last few months to take a look at this idea of what can a u. S. Attorneys office you to him pack to impact the budget . We are prosecutors. Criminals need to be incarcerated. In kansas, how are you facing this challenge . I came in from outside the department of justice. I didnt have an experience working with the doj. Manager. Esource i be slice of the pie that is a certain size. Do i want my prosecutors in our office to merely focus on getting the longest sentences they possibly can for Smaller Group of individuals or to broaden efforts and get reasonable sentences for a larger group of individuals to keep our communities safe . One of the things we look at was something that has been on the books for a long time. Divergent might be a young woman who works for a bank. Calls the police. I have been robbed. Two black men came in a stuck a gun in my face and took 5,000. After being interviewed, she breaks down and cries and says i took it. She has no prior criminal history. The money has been recovered. Is that person someone we should saddle with a felony for the rest of her life . Is that someone we should put into the system so the resource of the folks in the Probation Department that has to be there those were more violent in nature and are now shouldome supervisory, we burn resources for that person . I dont think so. We did after begin extensive amount of outrage. One of the things i didnt want to have for my fellow folk and enforcement was the feds they will tell us what we should do. I have been engaged to be very active in the outreach. Two thirds of the folks in my state live in one third of the eastern portion of the state. Often e i heard most kansas,ould be western that is an entire county. This is the first time i ever met the United States attorney. It was important. A part of the move toward smaller crime initiative, we set down with the folks and put together and retooled, retweet our program. It had it been addressed since 1995. We set out some guidelines. We havemething that now changed the tool, will the twill he used . What are the issues will the tool be used . What are they issues . If you are prosecutor who grew up our came to the department during the time the mandatory guidelines, it really was a get two points for this and you will work for this. Something will do between this many months and this many months. Outretion pretty much went the window. For a lot of folks, that is how they matured as prosecutors. One of the challenges we have is to institutionalize the notion that you have great leeway. You can look to the guidelines as guidelines. That again has been a real challenge for us. Number of our lead prosecutors and oliver offices go down all of our offices go down to meet with the attorney general, to meet with various folks to impress upon our prosecutors that this change is coming. To gothat Great Fortune to the white house at the less u. S. Attorney conference. The president came in. We had our picture. He stuck around this time. The initiative and how it was a unique moment in time we needed to seize. When i went back to my office, i convey that to my prosecutors. This is not a great area. This is what our boss wants us to do. It doesnt get any higher than that. I think we have moved in that direction. There are still challenges to be made to get people away from doing sentence enhancements. In the past, youd file and motion to enhance that sentencing to maximize the time. Us. Ify it to we have a dialogue. That is not just something that is out there. When our judges says, i dont really know the difference between if you do 10 years or 15 years. I do know if it makes you that much better of a person are not. That really struck me. That is good, it kansas common sense. We have tried to approach our prosecution with common sense. Thanks. I want to talk about efforts of building the other two legs of the three lighted stool legged stool. Thank you. Obviously the United States leads the world in incarceration. The city of new orleans and eight leads to stay in incarceration leads. We focus on enforcement as our. Ool of prosecutors we have tried to engage in additional tools, specifically on the reentry level. We try to engage with our business community. I think we all agree that a major part of reducing recidivism rests on providing longterm stable employment as they returned to our communities. So what we try to do is engage the community. Talk to them about the risk of employment in this community. Like the workforce tax credits out there. Called 32 2 2tive that is really an entry reentry collaboration between nonprofit organizations in the community as well as businesses. Were trying to courage 30 local businesses to hire two returning citizens for a t