To conduct productive change to build Greater Trust between communities and the police. Ive often said that police need the community and the Community Needs the police. I would like to start by thanking my cohosts in the forum, representative john conyers is the top ranking democrat on the house Judiciary Committee. Xp h been a tremendous leader for decades just as on criminal justice issues but on a wide variety of Critical Issues that face this country. In fact, we have a portrait of him hiding in our anteroom because he also used to be the chairman of this very committee. Also want to welcome my colleagues representative said richmond o serves as the chair of the congressiol blackcaucus , representative stewart jacksonlee who was the Ranking Member of the subcommittee on crime terrorism Homeland Security and investigation. Representative lawrence was a distinguished member of our Oversight Committee and who is championed so many of the issues that we are going t be talking about today. This daughter that all of them are here today. But what we are going to do is to have our host give a short Opening Statement. We will limit it to just those numbers that i mentioned and then we will ask our panelists so we will be brief because i really want to hear from these gentlemen. Then we will open it up to all members to ask questions and we will see how far we can get by 12 30 and we have promised the players that they can leave. And we appreciate you all taking the time to be here. We are here today to discuss ways to build Greater Trust between police and minority communities. I also want to discuss how former inmates who had done their time and visits to Reenter Society make a meaningful contribution neighborhoods in which they live. Between police and communities they say. We need to insure individuals returning to society, from prison have the tools they need to he rejoin the society. According to naacp, in 2001, one in six africanamerican men live in this country had been incarcerated. Think about that statistic and Ripple Effect it has on families and communities throughout the country. We must work to insure everyone, our fellow citizens, our Law Enforcement officials, everyone treats them with respect and we affordhem opportunities to find gainful employment, get an education, support themselves and their families. I ll soon be reintroducing legislation to give formerlyincarcerated individuals a better chance of getting a federal job. My bill calls it fair chance act, would ban the government from requesting criminal history informion from job applicants until the end of the hiring process. This is also known as band the x. It would help people looking to contribute to chaicommunities and their country. We know for aact that President Trump has worked hard and continues to work to push back on many of the reforms that president obama had put through but we must fight until the death because these are things that are so important to our community. Finally, i know that Ranking Member conyers is also working on Bipartisan Legislation which i will let him describe to provide incentives to help local police insure misconduct is minimized and fully investigated. These issues have been important to me for as long as i have served in the congress and i know the same is true for each of our members who are here today and the entire congressional caucus. I finally like to thank our players, anquan boldin, Malcolm Jenkins for hook us here today, for sharing their stories. Also want to thank, i see hank johnson, congressman hank johnson from from georgia joined us. Thank you for being with us. So i know that all of you are preparing for spring practice, so i truly appreciate you taking up the time from your schedules to be with us today. Also, mr. Boldin, i know you lost a loved one to a Police Encounter and i want to extend my deepest condolences to you and your family for your loss. We can not turn a blind eye to these incident. We must bring communities together to seize the moment and restore the sacred trust between Law Enforcement officers and their communities. Dr. Goff, i also want to thank you for being here. Your expertise in the area of police and minority communities will add a great deal to this forum. I appreciate the attendance of all of our panelist, and i look forward to hearing your stories and discussing proposed solutions to these vexing problems. With that i yield to mr. Conyers. Chairman conyers. Thank you, chairman Elijah Cummings and all my colleagues here. I want to particularly pnt out my colleague from detroit, michigan, brenda lawrence, for her fantastic work. She may be a new member to some of you but shes been the mayor of a major suburban detroit city. So she comes in with lots of experience, and as is particularly qualified to be here in this setting. Thank you so much. To the rest of my colleagues, i dont have to say much about the chairman and hank johnson of georgia but let me just make a brief Opening Statement complimenting what chairman cummings has already said. And of course to our particular witnesses, what a pleasure to have them with us always. For the better part of two decades the relationship between africanamerican communities and their Police Departments across the nation have hovered in a state of volatility, waiting a single incident to combust, explode. These tensions have grown as allegations of biasbased policing by la enforcement agencies sometimes supported by Data Collection efforts and video evidence, have increased in number and frequency. While the current wave of National Tension was triggered by the controversial shooting of Michael Brown in ferguson, missouri, on august 9th, 2014, the sensibilities of the nation have also been shocked by other highprofile policeinvolved shootings of more than 30 unarmed africanamerican and latino men. Off all more than 250 africanamerican men were killed in Police Incidents in 2016. Im going repeat that. Overall, more than 250 africanamerican men were killed in Police Incidents in 2016. Against this backdrop these same communities have been ground zero in the socalled war on drugs. There is bipartisan agreement that our nion has a crisis of overincarceration, mass incarceration, with 2. 2 Million People imprisoned in this country. Thats a ratio thats higher than i think any other nation that we know of. One of the main reasons for this catastrophic level of incarceration is the use of mandatory minimum sentencing. Which often imposes sentences that are not appropriate for the facts and culpability of individual cases. Once released, these people face the prison after prison where they chan experience both housing and employment discrimination due to their criminal records. These burdens can be so great that over half are reincarcerated within three years of their release. All of this disproportionately impacts africanamericans and is a major factor impacting the quality of life in our families and communities. It simmers down and spreads out. It is not just individual tragedies. The rise of activism triggered by the Racial Disparities in our criminal Justice System has touched the diverse parts of our communities harking back to the Civil Rights Era of the 1960s, people have taken to the streets to proclaim that black lives matter. And to seek justice for those who have died. Toda were joined by members of the National Football league. What an honor. This is the second hill visit by the National Football league players. We look forward to building further links with Nfl Players Association to raise awareness around our justice agenda. Your presence here is invaluable to us. As we recognize the price that some of your colleagues are paying for their activism, we know note th your appearance here is meaningful and not without risk to your livelihood although it shouldnt be. Ultimately i believe your activism will inspire others to raise their voices for justice. Let no one mistake, or make the mistake of believing that the search for justice in america is anything less than the important act of patriotism. And so i salute you, and i thank the chairman and yield back. Thank you very much, mr. Conyers. Congressman richmond, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus [inaudible]. Thank you, Ranking Member, ely i cant cummings. Elijah let me take a chance to brag a little bit and both malcolm and played for the ne orleans saints. I know jo cobi jones should have been the mvp of that game. To my colleague for detroit. Were play praying for you all. To my colleague from my left from atlanta, i cant say too much. Lit me thank you all for stepping off the field and stepping back into the realife that you all lived before you made it to nfl and before you played it in collegeo get out of your comfort zone but to actually give back and fight for issues that are critical. And we dont see it enough but you all do it in most of our africanamerican male athletes do it. You just dont get the aention for it. You only get the attention for doing the wrong thing. But when youre doing the right thing you dont get as much attention so let me thank you, and let me thank my colleagues for hosting this. Reforming our criminal Justice System is without a doubt the number one civil rights issue of our time. The Racial Disparities and discrimination across the criminal Justice System are undeniable. Africanamericans make up 13 of the United States population but we account for 35 of jailed inmates and 37 of prison inmates. Africanamericans and whites use drugs at similar rates but were significantly more likely to be arrested. Lets think back to when the crack epidemic hit our communities back in the 1980s. The solution was war on drugs that put thousands and thousands of people in jail, particularly africanamerican males. Today were faced with an Opioid Epidemic ravaging all commities and particularly the White Communities but our answer to the opioid addiction, rightfully so is treating it as addiction and a Health Crisis where we are investing in Mental Health and Addiction Services doing all of those things but in the 80s, the answer was just lock everybody up. And i think that as we talk about the Opioid Epidemic we still have to go back and remember that there are a significant number of people that are still doing time for crk cocaine when the sentence disparity was so out of whack. But we need to overhaul the entire Justice System. We need to reform it from end to end. From the way Police Interact with our communities, the communities they serve, to the resources that we provide, the hundreds of thousands of prisoners that are returning to our communities every year. We need to ban racial profiling. We need to invest in our police. Right now we sent understaffed, undertrained, overworked police into communities that have been ravaged by divestment and he neglect and expect them to maintain law and order. We need more resources for Community Oriented policing that puts Law Enforcement and Community Leaders on the same side of the debate so they can somesolve problems together. We need our attorney general to use his power to stamp out diriminatory practicesrom Police Departments and enforce consent decrease that hold police accountable. We need to ban private prisons and correct inmates in the correctional system. They should learn a trade or earn a do he agree so they can make is something of themselves once they get out. Which need to eliminate all demands and barriers prevent people who serve their time, who get trades, to actually perform those trades. In louis, for example, there are 321 professions that you can not do if you are a formerly incars rated. Although you learn how to cut hair, do hair in prison, you cant get a barber or beau tish shuns license because you were formerly incarcerated. We need to invest more resources into programs that help inmates when they return home, like first 72 in new orleans. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, were dedicated to partnering with you and doing everything that we can do to help you. I will just say that we also have to focus on the children of incarcerated people because we incars rated so many africanamerican males, the africanamerican male may be in jail but the family is doing the time. I will just tell you that mark ingram from alabama, plays for new orleans saints, started a nonprofit specifically to deal with children ever incarcerated people. So let me again, thank you all for what youre doing. Were here, the Congressional Black Caucus, were here as willing partners to help you fight what youre doing. Dr. Goff, let me tell you thank you for what youre doing. Were going to partner with you also. Call up on us as were needed. Thank you, mr. Chair. Just to reiterate what our chairman said, dr. Goff, one of the things the chairman has been excellent on, and i applaud him for this, trying to figure out how we can be effective and efficient in whatever we do. And so the expertise that you will bring to it counsels and let us know how to use our energy. You can go in a circle and not get to where you want to go and i know, and all of us in the caucus want toake sure were effective. The chairman has emphasized that. Im hoping that you will continue your efforts even after this hearing to help us out. Sheila jackson lee, congresswoman from texas. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I hope you all can hear me. And thank you to chairman cummings, to chairman conyers, delighted to be able to cohost this with you. He delighted to be here with my colleagues, congresswoman lawrence, congressman richmond and as well congressman johnson who is here. Let me just show you aicture and, probably far away that you can see it. Two little children, three little children. One would ask a question, what they have in common. But im going to ask you, are you a few years older than a preschooler . Raise your hands, witnesses are you a little older than a preschooler . Just a little bit. I dont want our members because they might be way beyond that. But the connection is, and the reason why your testimony is so very important, is that disparate treatment that africanamerican children and children of color begin to get, even as preschools. One might say zero to three. We have just determined by Scientific Research that, children of lor, preschoolers, are more apt to be suspended than any other children. Can we believe that . Does that begin to set a pattern . That youre suspended at the a of two or three or fou or that youre in handcuffs a little 6yearold, where they had to put both hands in one cuff . So what youre doing today is crucial. And as a, as a Ranking Member on the crime subcommittee, i want to focus on this who system upside down system, of juvenile justice. Who better than you to begin to talk about how africanamerican men are treated, how they begin to be treated as boys. How the respect for them does not exist, from Early Education to primary and secondary education. And then the criminal Justice System. Solitary confinement for juveniles. The idea that has been promoted, you make your way, you overcome, and you have to report on your College Application whether you were arrested as a juvenile. Or, rather than find an alternative for you, youre in the juvi, youre in detention, youre in a jail. Then of course the interactions between police and young africanamericans, americans, people who deserve dignity. So in addition to yourresence here today, i want to respond. I dont think one republican should be left out of meritorious legislation that deals with the crisis of mhael brown tamir rice, eric garner, trayvon martin, because it has got to stop now. I have a lot of statistics, i look forward to listening to you, but i want to end on this note. I wanted you to e the picture of these three little children of color and i want you to think about the fact that you are here for them. You are here in your name. On april 4th, will be the 49th commemoration of the assassination of dr. Martin luther king. In his day he was reaching out for civil rights and economic rights and peace against war. But our numbers were comparable, that we were also incarcerated but incarcerated as well and struck down because we wanted more rights for our people. I think that his dream is living through you but ousystem rights is in another context, and we can not cease. And i wl not rest until we get legitimate response to what your testimony will be from the federal level. Legitimate laws that speak as he opposed to