Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 1-29-16 Edition

President Obama Is Banning Solitary Confinement For Juveniles
President And First Lady Address U.S. Mayors
President Obama during his visit at Encino Prison last year.
Kalief Browder, a Black 16-year-old who was ar- rested in 2010 and spent al- most two years in solitary confinement in New York City's Rikers Island jail be- fore his release in 2013 and eventual suicide two years later.
ment in New York City's Rikers Island jail before his release in 2013 and eventual suicide two years later.
Solitary confinement, Pres. Obama wrote, is "increasingly overused on people such as Kalief, with heartbreaking re- sults — which is why my admin- istration is taking steps to address this problem."
On last Thursday, Presi- dent Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama addressed bipartisan mayors at the White House to highlight ways mayors are helping to make President Obama's agenda a reality in cities across the country. Throughout the week, the may- ors met with Administration and Cabinet officials to discuss ways to build on that progress, on issues from trade and manu- facturing to education and paid leave. The President high- lighted announced that the ad- ministration will award 13 cities, states and counties $1 billion to help build more climate resilient communities.
The First Lady com- mended mayors from across the country on their work to end veteran homelessness.
• In the past two years, more than 800 local leaders across America have signed on to the Mayors Challenge to End Vet- eran Homelessness.
• The challenge, as part of the Joining Forces initiative, is a way to solidify partnerships and secure commitments to end vet- eran homelessness from mayors across the country.
In the past year alone, local leaders have helped more than 157,000 veterans and their fam- ilies secure or remain in perma- nent housing.
President Barack Obama
in an opinion piece published in the Washington Post on Mon- day announced that he is ban- ning solitary confinement for juveniles in federal prisons, cit- ing concerns about its harmful psychological effects.
The move comes amid a na- tional movement demanding criminal justice reform, which was sparked by numerous high- profile police killings in recent years.
In the opinion piece, the President also said solitary confinement could no longer be used as a punishment for low-
level infractions. He said the package of changes would in- clude an expansion of treatment for mentally ill prisoners and an increase in the amount of time inmates in solitary can spend outside of their cells.
He said the changes would affect some 10,000 federal pris- oners and stemmed from a re- view of the practice he directed the U.S. Justice Department to conduct last summer.
The President cited the story of Kalief Browder, a Black 16-year-old who was ar- rested in 2010 and spent almost two years in solitary confine-
Hillary Would Consider Appointing Pres. Obama To Supreme Court
Pres. Obama To Propose Expanding Retirement Plans
WASHINGTON — Changes that President Obama will propose to employer-sponsored retirement plans could help 30 million American workers have access to retirement savings, the White House said Monday.
Pres. Obama's plan con- sists of a number of legislative proposals, which he'll outline in the 2017 budget he'll submit to Congress next month. They in- clude:
• Offering tax credits to small businesses that automati- cally enroll employees in a new 401(k)-style retirement plan — or requiring them to offer pay- roll deductions to an Individual Retirement Account if they don't offer a company plan.
• Requiring companies with existing plans to offer them to long-term, part-time workers who work 500 hours a year for three years; and
• Making it easier for com- panies to pool their retirement plans to bring down expenses through multiple employer
President Obama's plan could help 30 million Amer- icans get access to retire- ment savings.
plans.
The White House previewed
the proposals for reporters Monday but did not immedi- ately reveal their budgetary im- pact. In addition to the newly proposed tax credits for busi- nesses, the changes would give millions of Americans a tax cut by allowing them to defer taxes on their retirement savings.
The president will propose
an as-yet-undisclosed amount of money to experiment with more portable retirement plans, run by states and non-profits, which would accommodate workers who move from job to job or who have more than one employer at a time.
The National Institute on Retirement Security found last year that the median retirement account balance for all working- age Americans is $2,500 — a number that increases to just $14,500, for those nearing re- tirement. Many of them just need to get started, said the in- stitute's executive director, Diane Oakley. "What I like about this proposal is it still tries to provide some important in- centives for employers to take the next step," she said.
Pres. Obama's proposals would require action by a Re- publican-controlled Congress in an election year session, but Pres. Obama has expressed optimism he can still work with Congress on the issue.
At a campaign event in Deo- corah, Iowa on Tuesday, Hillary Clinton lit up when a voter asked her if she would consider appointing the Presi- dent to the Supreme Court should she win the White House. "Wow, what a great idea. No one has ever suggested that
"I would certainly take that under advisement," she told the crowd of 450 people inside a ballroom at the Winn Hotel about a potential Justice Obama. "I mean he’s brilliant, and he can set forth an argu- ment, and he was a law profes- sor, so he’s got all the credentials."
In 2014, in an interview with the New Yorker, President Obama seemed unsure when asked whether he would con- sider a position on the Supreme Court.
HILLARY CLINTON And PRES. BARACK OBAMA
“I love the law, intellectu- ally,” Pres. Obama said, “I love netting out these problems, wrestling with these arguments. I love teaching. I miss the class- room and engaging with stu- dents. But I think being a Justice is a little bit too monastic for me. Particularly after having spent six years and what will be eight years in this bubble, I think I need to get outside a lit- tle bit more.”
President Obama Meets With Bernie Sanders
President Obama met in the Oval Office on Wednesday with Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, offering pres- idential face-time just days before voting in the presidential campaign begins next week, White House officials said Tues- day evening.
A statement by the President’s spokesman said there would be “no formal agenda” for the meeting between the two men. Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said that the President and Mr. Sanders first discussed a meeting when the Democratic candidate attended the Con- gressional Holiday Ball at the White House in December.
But the White House meeting for Mr. Sanders comes at a critical time, as he seeks to defeat Hillary Clinton, the president’s former secretary of state, in the Iowa caucuses on Monday.
President Obama and Mrs. Clinton have met several times in the last year, most recently during a private lunch- eon at the White House last month. But administration offi- cials had struggled to say when the President last met one-on-one with Mr. Sanders.
Bernie Sanders walks from the West Wing of the White House after his meeting with Pres. Obama on Wednesday.
White House News
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