Transcripts For CSPAN2 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20160315

But much more conservatively given that action. Weve got time for one question. Weve got one over here. My question is for resources and for actual and temptation, you set the individual select in the program arent necessarily eligible towards a term of community supervision. Who provides the service when you type about checking in on a weekly basis, are you checking in with the Probation Office . It is only so many Probation Officers limited to how many people they can supervise spirit at one time the committee placement of several may have four or five on their load of people because they spend so much time with each people to make sure they are successful. One of the things that we did in the alternative portion is further able to shed the community so we can watch supervision and work with partners and other state agencies to contribute training and resources. So there was no actual funding. It was just reinvestment. Please join me in taking our panel. [applause] you want me to introduce the speakers . I would like to say these people need no introduction. Its really a great honor to be here with two attorney generals. One of the most exciting things weve seen in the area of criminal justice last for years years as more and more prosecutors, Law Enforcement shares in this case attorney general not only been interested and engaged, by really taking such positive step in the area criminal just is. Is that the democratic republican here so it tells of the bipartisan nature and management and that these shoes are partisan. So i wanted to post a number of questions and then we will hopefully have time to hear from those of you in the audience about the different areas of criminal justice where one or both of you have made it possible in your state. First of all, i know we heard earlier about the datadriven process thats gone on in the state. Going into the prison system, what programs are working, which programs are, what the various outcomes are brings together prosecutors, the advocates, judges and experts on criminology to look at the data and from that highlight solutions. Georgia has gone through the process which is incredibly successful a few years ago in each of the subsequent legislative session. Leading the way at all and with attorney general. I wanted to turn to you and see if you may talk about whats going on in maryland. We actually used georgia as a model because its done such good work. Three years ago maryland can of a series to return allies small amounts of marijuana. If you have less than 10 grams marathon a comment is not a criminal offense. There is a similar climate applicable that relate to 31,000 arrests per year in our state. It took a huge load off the criminal Justice System here in my path this year as a result of the task force that was put together over the past year a series of recommendations that are making their way through the General Assembly that there is general optimism in this measure which encompasses a number of different initiatives because as you said a minute ago, and the initiatives launched by the governor, by myself, by prosecutors, public defender and it does a number of different things. They would price the strip session penalties downward. Drugs other than marijuana, acrosstheboard penalty is trying to minimize prison time and minimize incarceration. It also requires folks would drug addiction problems in residential treatment, additional money available instead of sending people to jail, they will be diverted to get drug treatment. It eliminates the disparity for in sentencing between crack and. It raises the felony threshold so that people who still relatively small amounts of money or value of good dont end up spending time additional time in jail to get convict to the felonies. It expands in prison could Behavior Program in incentive credits. So if you are in prison and you are doing what youre supposed to be doing, you have the opportunity to have credits that will get you out earlier. We passed last year legislation that created the safety valve for mandatory minimum sentences. And the plight respect of late and it allowed people who are the subject of mandatory minimum sentences to get the sentence is reviewed by a threejudge panel at this years legislation is going to apply that rule which are actively. Those now in jail and get those reviews. It expands the alternatives to incarceration in and think id mind and include sentences in calculating the guideline compliance. That is important present time down. The legislation also identifies those practices an alternative resolution admit that Great Success and resolution to try to apply that to criminal. Im sorry im going on so long that its a multifaceted approach. Let me give you a couple more. And the volume weighted raised and Needs Assessment tool to determine supervision levels in when people are released in use swift and certain and proportional sanctions for violations of probation and parole. So there are i think nine other things this legislation does. It is a broad based in holistic approach to just sending people away. Ray, could you talk about georges experience implemented as well . Candidly, i will be sure with this question because the audience already heard he was the coop there in the first panel. I would simply say that the key here as was alluded to with the collaborative inclusive transparent nature. So when you have the aclu nt party boats in the room, you are able to calm to a discussion that creates a great though. Which limits the political after the fact, which was alluded to earlier. Weve done a bunch of those things. Proboscis in a lifetime on revising parole and probation. We are now at the point where if there was a sale of drugs over x number of years, and goodness to be a process to determine whether the individual has served too much time and should be released or with this legislation if they serve more than a number of years for possession, they have the automatic way for a hearing to be released from prison because as brien said, you got to go retroactively back for your roommate saw been a small piece of the problem at a time. What is sure to bring out but the highpriority victims of crimes from victim services, the notification, compensation. The attorney general funds. Obviously the offender can pay restitution which of course if they are working maybe they can do it but otherwise the need for services counseling, whether it Domestic Violence or other types of crimes. Touch god. In fact theres a whole list of these that query whether they should be paying many or none because many of them, for instance can i relate to pensions rather than to the crime. The restitution is number one. To the extent that the defendant is able to pay first minister is restitution for the big guns and that is really important. And then we have a whole bunch of services to decrease the recidivism rate to increase the potential that they succeed everything from other issues such as spanning the box to one of the neat things we really do in that regard is also a certificate, but with specific reference to the big guns, just as you are taking extra time to figure out to send this, you need extra time to figure out how to help the big guns. For two months i was last on the list of things to do and its been much considerably. Many district attorneys now are fulltime specific to the issue i know in different states of altered different so i just wondered whether the attorney general is involved. We do have a person in our office who works fulltime on assisting the dems and the Services Since it for too long has been a backend. The legislation was cut this year also focuses on the difference versus. I will say one of the problems problems one of the things that i think has attributed to the large number of our folks in prison in maryland across the country is the banning of fees. There is an article in the Washington Post a couple weeks ago about a woman who had been sentenced as a juvenile, managed to get her ged, got out of detention. She had no family, founders of the job of the gainfully employed and yet was getting yanked back to court weekly almost or once a month because she was unable to pay the four, 500 that she had accumulated in fines and fees for restitution. She was getting pulled back by the court to account for the fact she could not afford it. That is a very, or the problem. She was in danger of losing her job because while she was performing about berkshire had to take time off for that. Sort of a different question at the end, but it is worth mentioning for too long the answer with. That is a puny issue. So what we actually do in georgia now is we have the ability to legislation to have charter and the prisons. The governor actually superintendent and that i want you to retire from their position and i am going to make it about commissioner for corrections and whos in charge of the programming. Another thing that we do, not only giving them a ged, but classes and having them walk out or they can get a good shot or wellpaid job goodenow had to type up all colleges, we have assured touch on trade shortage of walters. Shortage of plumbers. They certainly charge enough. Technical colleges if you go welding degree, it is under the state program. Said now we have folks who are released are presented with a walters heard where they are given more than my son who got a journalist degree. So not only are you help those that did behavior of the prisons system, you are actually giving them the ability to have a really good thing job. One of the things we did in texas on occupational licensing if they would be disqualified otherwise. The other interesting thing is im buying, one of the things is to charge than community service. And again the restitution for sure. Those are really excellent point. Weve seen in juvenile detention in the School District has to provide teachers they often send the ones over there want to get rid of. Having a principled, the leadership within the campus is important. One of the issues i wanted to turn to his addiction because that is something we saw huge issue opioid abuse taken to laughter in the primera Republican Democratic side and both of you have been involved in trying to deal with pill mills for making sure that treatment is available. Weve seen a number of states, for example, narcotic treatment for opioid things to basically block reset is in the brain that trigger that craving. Also Good Samaritan moss and other things. If you could touch on what youve been involved with not just as attorney just as attorney general, the legislature in dealing with addiction. Sure, i dont know whether i apologize someone whos put in context this morning, but let me try to do that. The price of has plummeted over the last several decades. I think in the 80s i was up around 1200 per program. It is now down around 400 per program. The purity of on the street has tripled and folks who receive prescriptions for opioid medication often find that they become addicted and cant get off it and turned a hair in his its a much cheaper alternative. From a Law Enforcement to, maryland joined a task force that runs from our state although it to the state of maine. The folks who were trafficking heroin and dont respect state robberies and we are the attorneys general from maryland to maine to share information and we think to a more job of addressing heroin trafficking. At the same time, you have to address drug treatment problems that arise from herriman accrues from the opioid abuse and one of the things that is making its way through our General Assembly this year is greater input into the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program that is run by our state. New york has done an excellent job here. They require the prescription. It has to be done electronically. Nobody can steal your prescription pad and forge one. And maryland where we hope to get to the point for every time somebody prescribes an opioid with my database the doctor can check whether the patient printed three other. Theres before turn down the prescription and help. Yours make better choices when they are prescribing over your actions. Finally, like all attorney general has a medicaid fraud unit and doctors who are overprescribed mlx to see if the prescription opiate medication is so high that it raises suspicion, either fraud in terms of medicaid or criminal activity. And run across the road of bill to go after pill mills. Actually, we routed in a loving, it got past 12. Like the mass can change process before you pass the legislation. Florida passed bears in alaska on trent. At the time florida had some thing this would be no feelings. There many. So its in the past so they started using georgia. My favorite was the wall street journal story said discussion with the used car lot dealer talked with such pride on how he immediately sold these drugs because you can imagine he knew all about oxycontin. So we passed a bill, and had a huge effect one year we went from about four clients is not the right word, to about 100. We are now clearly closer to the original number with the pill mills. We did see a significant uptick in the cost of pills, so foxy, hydro, et cetera is 30 with pill on the black market contrast is brant talked about a pill of dollars. To that problem in that regard you additionally, i was glad attribution. But ag jack conway paths to schools about Prescription Drug abuse. So we took jacks program and added something to it, which was a psa kind of test. A 302nd psa from elementary level. I go from 30 to 50 schools. All schools. All bring with me local Accountability Court judges, Law Enforcement. I bring with me a girl or boy whose 22, 23 who is a recovering addict. At the levels present the dangers of the drugs in her hardest to is to get off the drug. If i have a 22yearold with me that it can majority of the time, they are paying. With a female speaker, much of the girls immediately go up to her after the session either disclose their coverage. The bushes generally arent that great advantage to know what a florid. It has been very well received. When you go into his school and say you want to talk about drugs, you are waiting for the fun gang up. The Accountability Courts its easier for me to not get into the schools. If we could play one of the winning videos from our contest. Im going to go. Its okay, dont worry. Just grab the pills and go. No one is going to know. Besides, a few little pills cant hurt, right . So that was the winning video from 2014. I have an association with the Georgia Association of broadcasters in one of the pharmacy distribution associations. They paid to have the winning video shown on tv for three month after our contest so that kids can get to see their video showing off over the state on nbc, abc, cbs, it better. The whole idea is to provide that education. But we also give them a check, franka. My office cant get it at the Pharmacy Association and not after. The whole idea is to teach these kids have dangerous the drug czar. We also have a 911 bill that you just mentioned. For instance, if these kids are at a party and somebody falls to the floor, many times the kids will think its okay, they are sleeping. They will sleep it off. No, because once you get regurgitation, it didnt the oxygen to the brain and that is called death. We tell these kids you call 911. If you are the person who calls and the person who is having the overdose, there will be no arrest and must the person called. Short of the dealer, theres automatic amnesty, 100 amnesty also relates to instance for alcohol. We now have the same scenario on college campuses, for instance. They will idea is to develop into good year for. Both have their life saved. We now have a whole bunch of sheriffs and police to carry a nasal spray so when they come to the call to immediately administer the spray to start the reversal to once again save these kids lives. That is terrific. You mentioned the Accountability Court. That is something both are you having your state, veteran scores. Georgia has recently expanded their great day. Prior to being ag, i was in the county of about 700,000 folks. Before this was voted statewide, before we talk to pew and vga, my county had a dui court. Mccartney had a drug court. My county had a juvenile drug court. For a couple of us that had it, you immediately saw the game. You immediately saw the benefit. And of course it became statewide and our governors and a whole bunch of money, millions of dollars each year. One thing that was interesting that was mentioned earlier is how you get judges to agree to the hard work it takes the Accountability Court . Lets face it, you expect failure. You expect an 18 Month Program here. It takes additional time for the court to have these cases in front of them. So last year, the judges were requesting a pay raise. So what the governor did if he said if youre judicial circuit has the Accountability Court, each judge will get an extra 6000. If your circuit doesnt have an Accountability Court, say goodbye to the six grand. It worked. When they turn to you bump and also juvenile drug courts to cheer you up because georgia did house bill 242 and 23rd in reserving state juvenile custody in maryland in 2015 pass a law that used to be there for 33 offenses. Kids working automatic are tried as adults. In 2015 at discretionary. I wanted to see what she might add about the course of juvenile justice as well. You know, all the problems discussed this morning relating to incarceration apply with even greater force to juveniles. In maryland i think weve reached a point where there is general agreement. If i can digress and tell you a story. Theyve got big guys, but they lose every race. The coach finally gets fed up a post of assistant coaches cited the book, go and see why we keep losing. So the assistant coach was over, hides behind a bush and watch as harvard, comes back and says i got it figured out. At harvard that got eight guys growing and one guy yelling. Last night and now we think are moving together in the right direction republicans and democrats on all of these issues, and especially with respect to juveniles in the right direction. We have controversy after controversy in the 80s, 90s and early artists should come and go straight to adult court. They still have juvenile rights without parole. Frankly i think that is a missed day. But i think we do have the general consensus for most juvenile offenses, appropriate ways. When we send kids to about facility, they assume criminals more quickly and end up being a trouble for the rest of their lives. So we are seeing movement in the right direction. We still have a very long way to go. Another issue you want to address his pretrial justice that the city chosen a lot of issues in Baltimore City jail, but over half the people are awaiting trial and people have to lose their jobs and so forth in this are ultimately never convicted of anything. And theres also. What are your thoughts can address that . When i was in maryland senator shared, the committee tried to get reform of marylands trial Justice System and failed. It is over of system. There where i think a couple months ago somebody looked in the Baltimore City jail and found they were over 100 people there who were incarcerated or awaiting trial because they could make bond of 100. The money basis to discriminate and fails to take into account the most important criteria, the most important things we want to know. If the person likely to show up for trial, number one. Number two, is the person going to offend while hes out if he gets bail. We know the Arnold Foundation has done great work on this. This is an Excellent Way of using the big data. They look it over a million and a half cases and they try to determine what would be predicted whether someone would be either by invading or offend while on bail or would show up for trial. The factors are what might intuitively think what judges think while he lives with his mother. Sure its going to show up. Hes got a job. Hell be okay. There are things that determine or predict this of those things are more likely to have a person can end a violent offense. Has the person never skipped bail before . It failed to show. There are nine different object does. You dont beat up on cross examination. Its very simple. Those are things that courts ought to employ in determining whether or not to hold somebody over for trial and not the subject of determination made on a daily basis. To be a time to take a couple questions from the audience . I want to talk about reentry on the other things they have. But i think i will open it up to get to any questions we might have. Not only towards the wonderful to topics that i mentioned. Hi, i am lisa [inaudible] and i wanted to touch base with the education which we can appreciate go in there. However, as georgia done anything or when they are released . He set them up with employment because her experience, even if you have the certificates, you have the knowledge, society as a whole has a hard time accepting felons to be employed for even find safe housing, which i validate all of their feelings. What has georgia done to help them find gainful employment . I will give you two answers. In the traditional sense, the state has the box. I have two employees that have criminal records. They were both young. They made mistakes and they are outstanding employees. Also, we do the certificate, as i mentioned, the ghost of them that literally comes from the department of corrections and says give this person a chance. On the other hand, the other answer is we have granted communitybased organizations. I really dont think the government is really good in this space in contrast to the faith based organizations. We specifically reach out to organizations to provide the housing, additional education and food so some of the folks i would for county jail, they are not robbing a Convenience Store because they have no money and food and provide additional training their and work with the Community Base to find jobs for these individuals. If i could just mention my session we passed a law for misdemeanors to ditch her conviction after youve been on the straight and narrow for a few years. Prosecutors, judges can still be used when you apply for jobs and housing. Mr. Frosch, you hope the sro wrath. 70 Mediation Centers across the country. Its not an idea for the ages to get together and put the criminal behaviors into the system and find the new site to benefit the prison system. Business links labeled or presented as charity. You have got criminals not going to jail, not pleading guilty come with guilty come without admitting or denying. You can take the lead here with the other states and cover the 100 fine. Thats a good idea. The Soros Foundation ran into Baltimore City a few months ago and just yelled out and thats a very good idea. I find i work with offenders in and outside of prison for 22 years and i find the biggest stumbling block to someone in block to some of the prison has not been able to find a job, not being able to find a place to live. And israel discrimination going on. The discrimination is not good at all. Everyones allowed to discriminate and it smells laws. You cant rent an apartment. Its impossible. And the same thing if there are no laws by attorney generals thinking its illegal to discriminate, this is all a waste. Are there any laws on georgia and maryland . I would tend to think that the federal housing laws would control that area. They dont. Texas passed a bill last session same landlords cant be sued. Some of them are worried about their life. It doesnt completely solve the issue. But id be happy to listen to this content. As attorney general, reinforce it. You get emails every day telling you how to vote. We struggled in maryland to help offenders achieve reentry. It is difficult politically. We have been struggling the past couple of years with legislation that would allow felons to vote, to expand their Voting Rights. One of the most basic rights of all of us had as parents is an uphill climb. So far not complete success either. Looks like another one back there. Hi, visiting fellow at the u. S. Department of justice working with the bureau of justice statistics and the office of victims and crime unfettered dissemination in translation of statistical data to support the crime victims. I wanted to go back to the conversation addressing how to better support victims. This conversation like most conversation like restitution and compensation action at the recovery surfaces and uzbek things we see in images projected in media and policy in the courtroom. Implementation with fidelity for those victims is so important. As you well know, the product of many decades of movement and hardfought victories. But what i wanted to bring up today because i think it doesnt get enough airtime in his conversations is that those victories are for all but the crime. The truth is less than 50 of Violent Crimes are reported in this country and muslim or 10 of Violent Crime victims get access to the service intended to them. That number plummets to 4 so we can imagine the incredible nexus of things that Community Among first deprivation and perception to the worthy of it and send it on with effect times. Also to bring up the incredible nexus with the topic important to many in the room about addiction and as a result of those statistics, many victims will self medicate and this further cycles feature vulnerability to further harm a violent victimization and justice involvement. My question to you is when we think about a better response to crime victims, what in the context of your state plan, particularly through the lens of intervention rn justice that we are all thinking about you doing to try to address these concerns, especially breaking down the false dichotomy between the victims of the crime and people involved in the system. So first of all, i would welcome an email from you and what you think the best practices are. Ages cant be experts in everything. I would tell you as i sit here today, how do i want to word this, theres a female lawyer arrested for stalking me. So for the first time on a personal level and in dealing with what it is like to be a big them, keeping the lights on outside my house, having the Police Department tell me my gun needs to be voted. So im sort of cms from a different genre shall we say all of a sudden. One of the things that is partially responsive because i think we need to go a lot further as you say in this area as we now have some Police Chiefs and sheriffs telling their communities we want folks that are addicted to come in and send you straight to recovery centers. So they are not tracking pretrial. We are talking prearrest. Todd messe statistics, but its really the next step. So when you have Law Enforcement that gets it and say if you need to go in recovery, before you commit the crime, before youre a victim of the crime, come into my office and let me get you in a treatment center. You then dont have a criminal record. You are not paying for the treatment. You dont have any criminal record at all and hopefully youve come forgot it. That is one of the next steps. When i detox all the time, one of my standard sentence is his addiction is a disease, not a felony. The battalion that is not easy for folks in my enforcement of Public Safety to say. That takes an educational process, but i firmly believe it now. I walk into rooms with families who have lost their thoughts once with drug overdoses, heroin overdoses. It is a huge step for by enforcement and public to get there. I applaud all of this Police Chiefs, all of this sheriffs that you get it and are urging folks to voluntarily come in for treatment rather than avoid the criminal Justice System to let the criminal Justice System help them. Well, i wish we could continue because its been a wonderful conversation. Ive been informed they have to stop the proceedings at this point. Thank you so much to the wonderful attorney general here in great questions. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] if you want to stand up for a moment, please feel free. My name is transfer, deputy public defender for the Central District of california in los angeles. It is my privilege to be a visiting advice theyre here for the office of Administrative Office of the quarter. It has been a real pleasure and working with the institute to put together the symposium. The next panel is near and dear to my heart being a federal practitioner. I am not going to rebate the bios in your program. Each one of these judges are experienced with alternative band. A rare occasion that we have the three levels of federal judges. We have a Circuit Court judge. We have a District Court judge in a magistrate judge. We will have all the bases covered. I did talk caroline that its kind of a risky proposition to put us at the criminal defense Trial Attorney with the microphone at a podium in a room full of people. But im going to resist the urge. I am also privilege to be a team member and an alternative Sentencing Program in our district in los angeles. We have two very distinguished programs. One is a free Drug Diversion program called conviction and sentencing alternatives. Track one will lead to a complete dismissal of after about a year in the program and the services you may need to address the issues that got you arrested in the first place. We also have a postconviction drug court to address repeat offenders instead of sending them right back to prison. Do what prison. To the pecan and operate treatment. The key to that is we have a code collaborative, Cohesive Group led by the head of the department. This usually here . In our district we have a good working relationship to provide Retail Service officers thomas as part of our team. Our u. S. Attorneys will have a couple in succession in our district promoted and supported our programs and ultimately neither of these programs would then an effect given by that you should turn it off as and then attorney general eric holder. Of course we have the people in this program and we are rounded off with providers in our pretrial postconviction programs. We have all heard of proposals to change federal criminal statutes. Theres a couple builds up on the hill. Sentencing act weve heard a lot about it of course recently the Senate Committee voted to proceed on the care act, conviction and rehabilitation act. Addressing some of the issues we talk about today. The federal crack dictionary and youll hear from from the judges, to that weve done very little to address the issue of alternative sentencing. The Sentencing Initiative is really on the backend of people with a mandatory minimums perhaps encourage individuals to participate in and rehabilitative efforts to reduce their custody, but theres very little on the front end. Up until now, these programs have rested largely on prosecutorial discretion, which i applaud them judicial discretion within the law judges have a certain amount of discretion review literature radically from a couple judges. Some of them will go on to them. Judge gleeson of coors has put out a number of opinions trying to stretch the discussion within the boundaries of the law. Without further ado, if i can ask the judge to come up. Judge donald. The other exciting fact is judge donald is currently the chair of the aba criminal justice section. She will tell you about what the session is doing in that regard and judge wells who is a leader in establishing a Mental Health coors which is basically unheard of until recently in the district of utah the last couple years. Of course its recently been a pioneer on alternative sentencing for having been a longtime practitioner and probably never going to have this opportunity again, im going to take advantage of my discretion here and say you run ads, individually and collectively im going to greater motion to address this audience. Growl, i have taken the prerogative of the sign in the order in which we are going to talk. Okay, thank you. It would be nice to see if i didnt have the didnt have the slides for for our incorrectness. I know you are out there. I can hear you. I wanted to speak to you briefly i want to speak with you at great length about a lot of things that we dont have the time. So i will talk to you briefly to incarceration programs. And more specifically the two that we have where i fit in the Eastern District of new york. These are presentence programs. Those of you familiar with the federal system and they are wonderful. Theyve been around for a decade. They are pretty much around the country now. What im talking to you about today are not Reentry Programs. Or no entry programs. They are intended to provide alternatives to which we subject to too many people in the federal caseload. Specifically there is a drought court called the pretrial opportunity program, which is a federal precinct drug courier. Youre essentially nonviolent, people whose Substance Abuse is well documented and we can sense that the conduct that brought them into the Justice System arose. This obviously it are a strong track record in the states we borrowed from it. It seems like an evolution in the federalist 10 that should produce what is ridiculously behind. Social scientists have been much proven the drug court and ways of enhancing recidivism. We have the impetus of our drug court was my sense why we waiting for people to get out to deal with the drug problems and a drug involved model. Only after they finished the present turn and use it as an opportunity to the program for them to a void at all. Program began in january 2012, ill give you a little bit of data. Its been enormously successful. Our second alternative and is only of recent judge for many years. It was a form of pretrial supervision with the great jack weinstein, my colleague. Probably had too many kids being detained through trial and the cases arose out of what appeared to be supervision. Kids who grew up in places where no one told them to get out of bed in the morning to go to school or look for a job. As a form of pretrial supervision, with half a special option Service Program thats been around for more than a decade. I think she might be here. She has been working with offenders for many years. I asked her if she was using judges, a month that a month of the judges to to be a useful tool. She said yes. Since 2013 thats also been a supervision program. These programs together dont capture. We recognize the that different from the case mix saturday as compared to the state systems. So we dont capture a caseload. Switcher program out in l. A. With 45 of the caseload. So far combined, we have had roughly 75 and pop and sos vision program. 34 have completed the program. Of those 25, 24 of the 25 did not get turns. And to show you how great an idea this turned out to be, or attorney general, which was u. S. Attorney in its current format. I went to her and the goal is to a segment of a finger to his sending off to do Something Better with. She saw me because that 24, 32 now of our successful participant have been charged to do to that extent not just an alternative to incarceration program. But weve had a great deal of interest expressed. For the life of me i cant figure out the place class in a departure for successful participation in judging of programs and theyve been asking for this for years. Clean out my office bench to pace. John last night i found this federal Judicial Center results on the survey and 1990s makes up two thirds of federal judges in 96 was to survey by saying im alternative to a preservation program. Across the political start drug because it just doesnt lead the way it should. Weve had a from a dozen districts around the country. Pretrial services, prosecutors, defenders and now there are programs like ours one or two cores. Most of them are youthful offender records or drug court, then they drug courts. Ive been running in 21 districts around the country, notwithstanding the fact that they look at the guidelines manual, you can even give it was an anomaly both were facing. The prosecutor ken sinnott says to me for successful participants in these programs im having them say to me they are not going to have a conviction at all. If you look at the guidelines manual so we made the Institutional Support and authorize departure would do. We need help gathering. Is a story triad of happiness, turning these peoples lives around. They are an unbelievably compelling story. Thank you. A panel or so ago i heard someone ask how does this, how does this movement translate to the federal system . And i thought, well, our panel to help address that question. I want to first say thank you to state courts who were the originators and leaders in the specialty Reentry Court area. And its upon whom we now in federal courts, or a least i have in our district of utah, have modeled from. There are also in this audience today a number of pioneers in federal court system who have brought this issue for and center to our federal courts. I would indicate to you that our programs in the district of utah, and just we are western and yes, we have a lower population, but we have the same issues and problems as anyone else. But our judges are behind our efforts 100 . And weve never had to worry about judicial support. I want to tell you about two things. First about our Mental Health court system which is the first Mental Health court but not the last in the federal system and then i want to tell you about how we have expanded the role of the federal judiciary and its partners in the reentry process. Im going to tell you two stories, both of which are true, and begin my journey in the interest of this area. In one instance it was a gentleman who was clearly seriously mentally ill who is facing again serious felony federal charges. It also was reflected physically with were a parent tumors on his face. They were very large, protruding, as well as similar ones on his body. He was mentally ill. He was ordered to go off to a federal psychiatric evaluation at one of our federal institutions. After about three months hed returned to the district with a psychiatric finding of incompetence he. The problem was during that period of time, his physical problems were not addressed and even quickly died in custody as a result of the cancer. That story touched me because it was addressing one without addressing the second and very obvious need, his Mental Health but not his physical health. The second one involved a man named mr. Kennedy come and mr. Kennedy was also seriously mentally ill. Is also a serial bank robber whose Comfort Level was in an institution rather than being out. He returned one friday night to the district of utah, and he went as instructed to the local halfway house. Unfortunately, he was two days early and was not accepted into custody. What he did is he slept on the streets. Then he went to the bank he had robbed repeatedly before. Robbed again and he sat down and waited for the police to come and get him. He had no other choices as it very seriously mentally ill person with nowhere to go. Those two incidents sparked a response in our district as is not uncommon. Many of our people in federal probation, federal defenders, sometimes the u. S. Attorneys office and other agencies migrate from the state system to the federal system. And i have been asked numerous times why cant we have a Mental Health court . Why dont we have a drug court . And this was eight or nine years ago. And the simple answer at the time was, we never have. So what we did is pilot a program with the permission of our chief judge without really mentioning it to our other District Court judges, because we have a better opportunity if we ask for forgiveness, not for permission. Or gently that was met along with our pilot Drug Court Program with great enthusiasm from a series of judges who, as the judge has dated, didnt like the lack of options and opportunity on even though they had seen the problems. We are now in our eighth or ninth year of Behavioral Health court. We now call it, as well as Mental Health court. But because of the openmindedness with which our judges and our probation people looked at these opportunities, we have been able to expand our programming far beyond. We now have an overall districtwide program that is called arc, assisted reentry to the community. That encompasses all of our Reentry Programs, which i think as the judge indicated, also involved the First Federal veterans court, again modeled after a state similar court. We have also recently started a tribal Reentry Court which is another pioneering effort from our district which serves and provides Reentry Services for those that live on or near the two largest native population reservations in the state, but of what some of them are seven hours away by car. We also stole from the program in los angeles a wonderful reentry preentry diversionary court. We have taken our program which is the utah defender often to Workforce Development program, again a model of the Eastern District of missouri which we started around the same time as the Reentry Court, which is a collaboration between our federal and state representatives to provide masters level Training Provided by our federal partners, with state officers, as well as our own probation and parole officers to provide incentives, training and incentives to perfecting employers about, in many cases, the benefit of hiring those with felony convictions. We also as well trained individuals coming back from periods of incarceration, how to interview for jobs, how to prepare a resume. And we matched those employers up with those persons. I want to say the word opened her but ive chosen to strike that word from my vocabulary, although i just used it the worst offender. Because it carries such a stigma with it. I also want to tell you about another program that we done called pretrial pathways, which involves an Educational Program for those who can participate to spend federal time so that they learn how best to behave on pretrial release, if they are given that, but also so they and their family have the opportunities to learn from those of also been incarcerated, what to expect in an institutional setting so as to ease the way and the journey to work through those institutions. So i would encourage everybody to open the mind and think outside the box and see what you can do in this important area. Thank you. Thank you, judge wells. Good morning. Let me say how delighted i am to be here with you this morning and how glad i am to know that theres so many people who are really committed and interested in dealing with these issues. I would say we have a very distinguished and wide panel this morning. We were not wise enough to bring water with is a. No, so every go. Anyway. [laughter] spink is tha that in order, your honor . Ill just see what happens. [laughter] thinking back to speak if they dont do that for district judges. Clearly not. [laughter] this reminds me of the work of Charles Dickens and in the opening passages where he said its the best of times, the worst of times. And we heard this morning sort of the state of criminal justice, the numbers of people who are incarcerated. Weve heard one of these programs will reminded me of that because theres a lot of hope, and yet the people who are out there in those institutions theres a lot of hopelessness. I served as a District Court judge for 15 years, and during that time i dealt with statistic issues. I wanted people who are closer to the issue to talk about that right now, and theyve done. I want to share a couple of things that i want to make a couple of the points. In my capacity as chair of the American Bar Association criminal Justice System your as i said i spent 15 years on the federal trial court and in that time i sentenced a lot of people. In that time our court in western tennessee, created a Reentry Program and a Drug Court Program, and those are still functioning and it has some levels of success. As you might imagine a few people go through those programs. It doesnt have the capacity to handle huge numbers of people, but every individual who is and can be helped in one of those programs, i counted a plus. Our program has the involvement of judges, u. S. Attorneys office and our u. S. Attorney is here, as the involvement of probation and the u. S. Marshals service. And we have been in operation for about eight years, and thats good. One of the things that i want to talk about this morning is a term that judge gleeson used, no entry. Because i think the focus has to be there, no entry, and when i say no entry our domain the people who have violated the law and committed infractions. Im talking about intervening in lives before they get to the criminal Justice System. I am talking about interrupting the school to prison pipeline. Im talking about the reality of the communities of which people live and grow. As chair of the criminal justice section we look at a program, we are putting together a program that is coming up, part of the program is going to be prestaged with the Macarthur Foundation coming out and talking to us about their neuroscience program, explaining to us about the role of neuroscience and helping us to address some of these critical criminal justice issues. They will come in and talk about the roles that environment plays on bring it element, or lack thereof. What talks about it the impact of growing up in high violence, high poverty communities that are also high density communities, and the effect that that has on brain development. What he says is the individuals who live long times environments in like that have constant and unrelenting stress on the brain which can lead to a neural connection between that and certain behaviors. As a society we have to be mindful of that. We have to look at whats happening to children in schools, and while we have burgeoning criminal justice budgets come if we are, in fact, diverting resources from that early development, preschooler whatever, knowing that kids dont have the reinforcement of that impact families, that mentor to sort of guide them, all they see is the kind of negative behaviors that we are talking about today, is what we are doing. Then we are not really interrupting that flow. What weve been talking about is really great but its all back and. We have got to start focusing front end. Because the amount of dollars that we spend front and will be far less than we required to spend back and if we do the kind of things were doing on the front and. I know thats not an easy task, but i think that everything we do to try to influence that has got, will be positive. Someone in mention Mental Health earlier. A huge issue. Because we have no repost and i think the commission should we of now deposed a lot of Mental Health treatment in jails and prisons. People are coming into jails and prisons sometimes because they havent got the treatment on the front and. So we need to honestly, policy leads me to address the. Then i want to talk about children. People talk about the number of children who have parents who are imprisoned doctor jon agan who is from northwestern, a scholar with the American Bar Foundation in consultation with, its not the department of health and human services, the disease and control unit out of atlanta. I forgot the name. Centers for disease and control, thank you. Executive conference of the white house about four years ago and people have been studying the effect on educational outcomes for children of incarcerated parents. What the Research Says is that children of incarcerated parents have higher incidence, first of all, of entry into the criminal Justice System. They have lower rates of graduation from high school and will have lower rates for going into college. But the startling thing was that children of incarcerated parents have higher degrees of asthma, diabetes, hypertension, hiv aids, certain allergies and a whole range of things. And if we think about what i just said, then think about the cost of treating that into community, or more importantly, think about the cost of not treating that. The other startling thing that came out of that was that while the rates and educational outcomes were lower as a parent is in prison, for boys is the father is imprisoned, of course the rate goes way down. If the mother is incarcerated and charges will do our higher numbers of mothers in prison, if the mother is incarcerated, then the rate of graduation and all goes down closer to single digits. And that is something we have to be concerned about. I hope that shocks you get sick at the level of people who are not able to get an education and to into the workforce, then you that many more people who will not be able to contribute as meaningful citizens to that workforce. Two other quick things, after a lot of things but i will talk about some of them in my closing remarks. The American Bar Association criminal Justice System is working on a range of programs that i will tell you about tomorrow, not today. The one i want to mention today, we are working on this program really at the request of the Justice Department. Theres a lawyer come as a judge on the chair but as a, theres certain things as a judge i can do. We have a lawyer whose name is jim, out of florida. He along the criminal justice section led by his initiative and other collaborative partners are, at the request of the Justice Department, working on whats called clemency project 2014. Youve heard about these sentences for lowlevel drug offenders. There are a bunch of them that are in prison. The Justice Department at the request of the president said review these folks who are there who would receive lower sentences would be sentenced to do as a result of the reform laws, and lets see if something can be done. Lets see if some of these people merit clemency. I want to take you back 20 years ago when i was a trial judge. Two young men arrested for street drug dealing eric their cases got separated. They were tried separately. Defendant number one tried on a drug offense got acquitted, moved on with his life. Defendant number two got tried, was convicted. And because of his criminal history, he was looking at a mandatory life in prison without parole. I take an oath as a judge to follow the law. Mandatory minimum, thats what i did. He went to jail for life but i will tell you as a result of this program, april 15 to 2015, president obama granted clemency after he served about 10 years of his sentence. But this whole army of lawyers for looking at these 60,000 petitions that they have received, getting lawyers from around the country to take on these things pro bono. Once again thats sort of a backend issue. That is so much work to be done in communities, at the policy level, at the legislative level, the judicial love, every level. Not other senior can do everything, but every one of us in your can do something. And every one of us i believe are obligated to do the thing that we can do. I want to go back quickly to our u. S. Attorney who understands that it is so important for kids trapped in communities of poverty to see someone, oftentimes looks like them, who has not taken that road that leads to jail or prison but who is doing something that is positive and who tells them that you have worth and if you apply yourself, you, too, can succeed. So in addition to being smart on crime hes also in communities talking to children, inspiring hope, giving them a model. Hes there in the schools and communities at 7 a. M. Talking to children. It is important for kids to understand theres expectations and a realization that they can do better than enter into the criminal Justice System to get an education or to get a job or whatever. We have to do more of that. I rambled a little bit but i just had to say that to you this morning that all of us can do something and we have to do that thing. I will end with a quote that is attributed largely to dr. King who said that the arc of the moral universe bends towards justice. I want to say to you a test that didnt of its own volition. It only bans and those of you sitting in this room and those in the audience and beyond this are pushing and pulling to make certain that our bends towards justice. Thank you. [applause] are the questions for judge gleeson or judge wells . I think we almost 10 minutes. Yes, okay. Good afternoon. Im a researcher with the pew trust in washington. Judge gleeson our members taken with in the past about this question. I was hoping you could maybe elaborate on it as well and possibly you, judge donna, from your trial court days. I wanted to ask about probation sentences and why the been going down so sharply in the federal system. About 90 of all federal defendants to take it prison sentences and that used to be less than half, i think 80. Obviously mandatory minimum sentence and the guidelines have something to do with that but i would be carried to know from your own experience how common was it for you to once sensitive into probation but prevented from doing it because a statute with the guidelines manual told you to do. I would like to give you the one our answer to that. Yes. I mean, it was pretty guidelines depending on whose numbers you take him anywhere from like 4050 not incarcerated sentences. One major problem is 994 j. , title 28, sentencing reform act, heres a congress that wasnt exactly feeling warm and fuzzy towards criminal defendants. This was the 1984 sentencing reform act designed to restrict the discretion of judges. 994 j. Nevertheless says that the Commission Shall ensure the general inappropriateness of a term of incarceration. First offenders about commit a crime of violence or otherwise serious offense. A presumption of probation for folks who are first offenders, thats easy, havent committed a crime, that should be easy or otherwise serious offense. Could be better. But we are lawyers. We know that means its a presumption of incarceration for people who are first offenders and their offense of conviction has this recess akin to that. Doesnt have a serious a candidate. What does the original commission to . It decides not just to ignore that resumption of probation. It defines it. It defines every single whitecollar offense as serious issue. If you read the introduction to the guidelines it quotes 994j and it provides a definition that puts the word serious in quotes in places, goes on to say it place of probation out of bounds for every single one of those. Categorically. The opposite of what congress intended. Another problem, if someone takes a day to make mail, that gets boat, and then they do fine in one of our drug courts, drug court for youthful eventual thats a time serve a sentence. That doesnt look like a probationary sentence. On the judgment its time serve. Thats all the commission reached over and over again. They are fond of saying even when given the opportunity, judges dont impose sentences that are probationary sentences. Thats because the data can be confounded. Someone does one day in prison, thats not a visionary since the that time serve as a prison term. They need to fix the date as well. One affects the data, the other effects, people listen to the commission. Wind that book says you cant give probation, theres a lot of judges around the country that are not going to give probation. I would agree with that. Im not the current data shows that postbooker, judges are generally still sentencing in conformity with the guidelines. So theres not much deviation. Im a specialist with the legal Progress Team at center for american progress, and i think one of the biggest elephants in the room is the privatization of the prison industry. I know what the panelists this morning mentioned it but it dont think its talked about enough. I wanted to ask, i know some States Companies that have contracts with the corporations, the correctional corporations of america. How do these contracts hurdle true criminal justice form if there are contracts the states guaranteed us a certain amount of prison population in the state courts and also i just wanted to personally thank the judge for all the work youve done in tennessee. Thank you. Since judge gleeson is leaving the bench in two days, why dont you take that one . [laughter] i hear that question a lot. I have to believe that is the real problem may be an impediment to reform in the states. I hang around, im a federal guy. And as many impediments as ive seen, its like even getting agreed upon reform, 101 ratio, you want everyone to agree to its like turning the queen mary around to change things slightly. But i have not once actually seen or heard that the kind of Prison Industrial Complex notion to actually impinge on federal sentencing policy for reform. I believe because i hear about it all the time that that must be an issue in the states. Federally, i dont think people are worried about that problem. I might he wrong. A lot of decisions get made well above my pay grade but i havent seen the issue in these into the policy debate in the federal arena. Okay, one final question or. Im a professor of law at the university of the district of columbia. I run a clinic doing efforts to reverse the school to present my plan. One quick comment in response to judge gleeson what you said. In 1980 Congress Killed the federal corrections youve act. That was in place in 19501984 and about alternative sentencing for people who work younger than 22 at the time of conviction. 20 to . Sorry, 26. A commonsense piece of the law that was part of the wave of mass incarceration. The rest of my comments against the question directed to judge donald, youre right about the front end versus the vatican. I think we need to look at the systemic pressures in early periodic screening diagnosis treatment, medicaid program, special ed program. People feel that they are not budgeted to do the work that would have meaningful intervention that are required by law to do the kind of work youre talking about in a broad way. To any number of examples of that. I think in doing reform of which are suggesting we need to look at systemic pressures and figure out ways of creating the funding so the incentives are there to do what the law requires. People are violating the law left and right, and those are just two examples. This is a question them to do what youre talking about when you to look at those systemic pressures and leverage points to create change in those other systems. Okay, if thats the question i would say yes. [laughter] very good. So over here. Just one last comment. I apologize. I have to tell judge gleeson to im an attorney advisor at the Defender Services office your we staff the Defenders Committee and we are in mourning that you are leaving the judiciary, i just had to publicly say that, okay . It was wonderful. We thank you for your work on many fronts. Thank you. [applause] well, thats it for the question. I do want to give judge wells and opportunity to make any final comment you want to make. Thank you. This is an invigorating experience and kind of renews our wish to go back and accomplish more. Judge gleeson to any final words . Thank you for having me and for having this wonderful program. Thank you all. [applause] thank you for the very enlightening an important presentation. Just before we conclude for lunch and take a break for lunch, i did want to take just one moment to acknowledge once again judge donald it was also a cochair for this summit together with judge renfrew. So thank you very much. We look forward to your feedback to the emails, through twitter so we can continue to enhance the program. We will now break for lunch and we will welcome you back in approximately one hour just after 1 40, closer to 2 00. Thank you. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] the House Oversight Committee Meets for hearing on the water contamination in flint, michigan. Those testifying include the citys former mayor and a former regional epa director. Later in the day a look at ongoing efforts to develop selfdriving cars with Technology Experts and representatives from the auto industry. They testified before the senate commerce, science and transportation committee. Thats live at 2 30 p. M. Eastern also on cspan3. Campaign 2016 continues today with primaries taking place in missouri, illinois and ohio, North Carolina and florida. Live coverage of the Election Results and your reaction gets underway at 7 p. M. Eastern. Taking on the road to the white house on cspan, cspan radio and cspan. Org. The head of floridas primary Chelsea Clinton was in the state friday campaigning on behalf of her mother. She spoke to voters at a restaurant in st. Petersburg where she was introduced by the citys mayor. This is 25 minutes. [applause] [cheers and applause] well good afternoon, everyone. What a great crowd. I cannot tell you what an honor it is for me to be here today. To be able to introduce chelsea. I had the honor of hearing her speak a couple weeks ago at the home of joe and kathy saunders, and you all are in for a treat. She is unbelievably impressive and i hope im not stepping out of line here but i see a political future here, too. [applause] but i know shes going to talk a lot about her mom, the secretary, but you will notice, this is such an important election. And we have a choice in candidates, and in particular we are so fortunate to have a good choice on the democratic side, but one in particular and thats secretary clinton, who really understands the situation we are dealing with in this world and in this country. And whether its Foreign Policy, and it isnt any candidate better on Foreign Policy at a time when that is so critical to our safety and secretary clinton, all on whats happening here domestically and who gets it. From Small Businesses like greg and leslies here at swahrey to understanding cities and supporting cities and recognizing that it isnt happening in washington and it isnt happening in tallahassee. Is happening here and she gets the and she supports us and she falls our president in that respect and thats why for so many of the reasons we need to elect secretary clinton as president. [applause] and so without further ado, it is my deep honor and pleasure to introduce Chelsea Clinton. [applause] thank you. Thank you so much, mr. Mayor, for that introduction. Thank you to leslie and greg and everyone at swahrey for letting us invade and i hope lots of you by delicious treats giunta countered no problem. It is not locked like it should be a problem from where im standing. And although i spoke while the mayor, sorry, i was standing while the mayor was speaking to im going to sit down because im pregnant. Thank you, yeah. I hope you dont take that as a reflection of my gratitude for all of you taking time out of their busy days to be here with us this afternoon or my enthusiasm for my moms campaign. I just hear my doctors voice in my head not to stand for too long. The mayor talked about this being an important election. I think this is the most important president ial election of my lifetime. And i feel that way for two reasons. The first is a deeply personal one. This is the first president ial election i will vote in as a mom. Aikido i could care anymore about politics or who is running for office or Holding Office until i became a parent. 17 month old darl daughter at home. I grew up going to events like this de facto really remember a time in my life when i wasnt at an organizing event or a political rally or i was volunteering in a campaign, mainly just sort of answering phones are stuffing envelopes back when that was a big part of the campaigns in the making it is. My dad when he was running for governor but also for whomever my parents were supporting, he was running for city manager or mayor of little rock, understanding local leadership is so important. So whoever was running to represent arkansas in the senate or the house and, of course, whomever was running as the Democratic Party standard bearer in a president ial election year. And yet this now feels so much more urgent to me because im so blessed to be a parent. I know that whom ever we elect will play a profound role in shaping the country and the world and with the future that my children and their generation will grow up in. The second reason is i were everything i care most about is at risk. I just want to give a few examples of what i mean by that and what i think my mom is uniquely positioned to be a strong and effective president at this moment in time. The first issue i want to talk about is health care. As you may have seen in the debate, my mom now jokes and her daughter thinks, before it was called obama get it was called hillary care. I remember when my mom thought really hard for universal Health Care Coverage back in 93 and 94. Rather infamously our efforts then didnt work out. They didnt work out in part because the Health Insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry spent tens of millions of dollars to defeat her effort. After that just bruising, brutal experience, i think no one would have folded her had she said im just tired, this is exhausting, maybe there will be a better time in the future. But she didnt say that. She instead said we cant let the enemy be the perfect enemy of the good. She spent three years build a Bipartisan Coalition to greet the chills Health Insurance program. The childrens Health Insurance program now insures more than 8 million low income American Children including more than 100,000 right here in florida. [applause] i share that because, like in the early 1990s, republicans controlled congress. And even in the most optimistic, speaking as a democrat, projections, democrats are not expected to win back the house, not in this election, not in the next election, not in the near future. So we have to have a president who knows how to find Common Ground to make progress, particularly on behalf of our most vulnerable, on behalf of americans who are left out, left behind or not thought about in the political process historically, like our low income children. We are not at 91 Health Insurance coverage because of the Affordable Care act. If anyone tells you the Affordable Care act doesnt matter, you can tell them that last year because of the Affordable Care act more women had prenatal care and more women delivered in hospitals and safely with midwives than at any point in American History because of the Affordable Care act took the Affordable Care act [applause] matters. We need to protect it because the republicans are passively opposed to it. We also need to find ways to finish the job of the Affordable Care act, disincentivize governors like yours who have not yet expanded medicaid, and to cap outofpocket expenses and premium costs and to finish the work that my mom started one in 20 years ago to empower medicaid to negotiate directly with Drug Companies to lower drug costs. Thats good for people on medicare but its also good for the rest of us because it would be hard for the Drug Companies to look us in the eye and charge those of us not on medicare even three times, much less 300 or 3000 times that they would charge so much on medicare. Republicans supported a similar effort for the va system, so we know the Common Ground is there to be found. But we know its not only when it comes to health care that we have to continue to find Common Ground. My mom is really the only person whos running for president on either side of the aisle as a record of being able to work with republicans, whether its on expanding Health Insurance or radically overhauling adoption on foster care system, something she did with a man named tom delay, not exactly seen as a friend to democrats but because of their joint efforts they are not 80 more children adopted out of foster care system ever year and was a true 15 years ago. She doubled the federal funding for Early Head Start programs working with republicans. She extended va services to National Guard men and women when they come home from serving our country overseas so that they and their families can be part of the va system. She did that with republicans. So we need a president who does know how to find Common Ground. My mom is really the only person running who has a record of doing that. I think what someone has done is a good indication of what they will do. But we also know that we need a president who can stand her ground. I want to talk about a couple of points. The first relates to the Supreme Court. When i was here of the weeks ago, i had no idea the Supreme Court would be thrust into spotlight that has been with Justice Scalias passing. And always take a moment to recognize that his sudden passing was clearly a tragedy for his family, his friends, his colleagues, nine children, almost 20 grandchildren. Justice ginsburg is about as far a way of the ideological spectrum that you can get from Justice Scalia has spoken very movingly about he more than anyone else helped her learn the inner workings of the court so she could become an effective just as quickly. So i just think its important for those of us who may be especially for those of us who violently disagreed, as i did, with Justice Scalia on just about everything, to still in this moment of hyper polarization and politicization have a sense of shared humanity. And recognize that his passing was clearly a tragedy for those who loved him and who work within. And yet what his passing as revealed is why the Supreme Court is so important. If you listened to my mothers opponent, he talks about the court mainly through the lens of Campaign Finance reform. And yet it is hugely important that we overturn Citizens United and i think would be hard to argue, my mom doesnt have a personal interest in that pic of Citizens United was an organization set up with one purpose, to derail her 2008 president ial campaign. So she has a real personal interest in overturning Citizens United, as well as clearly an ethical and American Interest in getting unaccountable money out of our political system. And yet we know the court is important for so much more than Campaign Finance reform alone. So just a few examples. In 2013 when Justice Scalia on the court, the Court Vacated or overturned a core part of the Voting Rights act. We are seeing the consequences of that in this election. There are more voter restrictions in 2016 than at any point since before the civil rights act. So weve gone backwards more than 50 years. We saw in the week before Justice Scalias passing the court took the almost unprecedented decision to preemptively stay president obamas executive action to shudder coalfired power plans and finally move the United States foreword in the fight against climate change. With Justice Scalia on the bench, the court had an uneven record on gun control. Sometimes it upheld gun control measures and sometimes it struck gun control measures down as not being compliant with the Second Amendment. So if you listen to what the brady campaign, moms demand action from the major guncontrol efforts in our country say, is that they believe the next time the court rules on gun control it will be a definitive ruling, will draw clear lines and they will say this is what Second Amendment complaint gun control cant and even maybe should look like in our country. I hope so. [applause] you saw last week when the court heard arguments against texas law hb two, which is upheld will not only restrict a womans right to choose in texas, but planned parenthood estimates will deprive more than 25 of the women living in texas access to health care. And what i think is important to also recognize about hb two is that its not singular. Since 2010 there been more than 300 laws passed at the local and state level restricting a womans right to choose. This year alone there are more than 300 additional laws that states and locales are looking at restricting a womans right to choose. What planned parenthood says that even if the ones already exist or allowed to stand, it will mean that about 50 , maybe more, of american women will lose access to affordable quality and safe health care. So if you care about gun control, you care about climate change, you care about the device, you care about a womans right to choose or Womens Health are really equity because wealthy women in our country if osha choices, you have to care about the Supreme Courts recent history and current history. Just one last example. Its still legal in 31 states to discriminate against someone basis on gender identity or sexual orientation. So although no americans have a constitutionally protected right to marry, at least in theory, on the same day someone got married they could get fired. They could get kicked out of school. They could get kicked out of her home. They could be deprived of health care. The court is likely to hear challenges to some of those laws next year. The court is only going to become even more relevant and we need a president who understands we dont live in a single issue country and we cant afford to treat our government as a single issue institution, whether were talking about the white house, congress or the Supreme Court. We have that leadership now and president obama, and i certainly hope the senate does its job, you might we are even if the senate does its job and give someone with the president nominates the full and fair hearing, this issue isnt going away. If you look at the average age on the court, and the average age historically which judges have retired, the next president may appoint up to three justices for the court which into the next president will shape the Supreme Court for a generation. So this is hugely important this year, but really for the foreseeable future, and certainly over the next president. The last thing i want to talk about why i think its so important we have a president who not only knows how to find Common Ground, knows how to stand her ground but also knows how to make government work on behalf of our values. Went into office and when not. And if we need a reason for why this is so important, we only have to look at the republicans on any given day. And admittedly i missed the debate last night. I missed the debate because i was doing events in jacksonville, but i have watched the debates and i have watched the rallies and speeches, and i find almost normalization of hate speech deeply troubling, right . The racism, sexism, the islamophobia, the homophobia, the antiworker rights rhetoric, the antiimmigrant rhetoric. [applause] and the list sadly goes on and on. And the policy proposals that flow from that come to build a wall, to take out a lab or 12 Million People who are here working hard on behalf of their families for dignity and opportunity, who are part of the american dream, to keep a list of american muslims. When my husband is a jewish heard that, his first reaction was, that does not work out well for my family when ther they wee lists based on religion. He immediately come tragically thought about the family that he lost in the holocaust. He said i have every Jewish American has the same reaction. I look at him and i said every american should have the same reaction. This is a fundamentally unamerican. [applause] we need a president who not only stands up against that everyday, rhetorically and makes it clear that there is no place for the rhetoric of the policy proposals in america, but also a president who knows how to make government work on behalf of our values. I think that my mother did that really effectively when she was secretary of state. And just a couple of examples. She created the first high level position for someone to monitor on behalf of the u. S. Government whats happening to and for women and girls around the world. Womens rights, Womens Health, girls education. And she expected all of our embassies around the world to know whats happening to women and girls in the countries where they were located. Secretary kerry has continued at a think thats very important. [applause] and its important in total candor that a man continued. Its also important that another secretary of state intended it because it will be harder for someone to dismantle it in the future. Harder for even a republican president or republican secretary of state to tell the thousands of foreign Service Officers who work on behalf of all of us around the world that all of a sudden no, they shouldnt Pay Attention to women and girls. My mom similarly set up high level position for someone to monitor just whats happening to the Lgbt Community around the world, to set the same type of expectations for indices that they would report regularly on whats happening to the Lgbt Community to prominent activists and advocates in the countries where our embassies are located. And she set up a fasttrack to silence process so that when sadly not if but when lgbt activists and advocates are being persecuted or even prosecuted around the world for their gender identity, who they love, what they are advocating on behalf of, that they can apply for asylum quickly and find safety in sanctuary in our country. Secretary kerry has continued that. [applause] and that, too, will be hard for someone to dismantle in the future, to tell our foreign Service Officers that they shouldnt care about the Lgbt Community, or the know, all of a sudden there is no longer a dedicated fasttrack asylum process. So understand how to make government work on behalf of our values, really matters in a president. And so as proud as i am to be my moms daughter come and im really proud to be her daughter and im really grateful for the example she gave me while growing up as being a working mom, because i watched her work so hard, whether it was as a lawyer or the first woman chair of the Legal Services corporation of america when she oversaw legal aid across our country, or in your efforts to bring the first public Early Childhood Education Program to arkansas, i never doubted i was the most important person in the world to work. So when i was getting ready to leave yesterday morning i was talking to my daughter come and i know shes only 17 months old but i showed her on a map of florida is that i said im going to florida on behalf of your grandmother because i think this campaign is so important to your future. And so as much as i sit here as a very proud daughter, i se suid up first and foremost as a mom. And i couldnt imagine a better grandmother for my children. Thats definitely true but i also couldnt imagine a better present. I want to thank all of you for support and all youve done. I see some i voted stickers. For those of already voted thank you to i love all of you will talk to everyone you know or even have ever met or might need between now and tuesday about what is at stake in this election, why are you supporting my mother i just want to thank the mayor again. Thank leslie and great edges thank all of you for all legitimate our behalf of her campaign. We couldnt do any of this without all of you, so thank you very much. [applause] the u. S. Senate is about to begin todays session and general speeches to start the day they will break at 12 30 p. M. Lawmakers would be back at 2 15 p. M. Eastern for more on a genetically modified Food Labeling bill. No votes are expected today. Yesterday Mitch Mcconnell filed a motion to limit debate on the bill. A vote is expected tomorrow. And now to live coverage of the u. S. Senate here on cspan2. The president pro tempore the senate will come to order. The chaplain, dr. Barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. The chaplain let us pray. Merciful god, you and you alone have brought us to this moment. Help us to hear your whispers and to follow your leading. Speak to our lawmakers about the difficult issues of our time, reassuring them that you