Page 11 - aua traveller july 17
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OBAMA WILL GO TO PRISON
FOR A FAIRER JUSTICE SYSTEM
PRESIDENT Barack Obama’s push for a fairer hensive security screening” will be conducted, calling He also called for restoring voting rights to felons
it standard practice. who have served their sentences, and said employers
justice system is literally sending him to prison. Spriggs, who said he is familiar with El Reno, said should “ban the box” that asks job applicants about
As part of a weeklong focus on inequities in the criminal Obama’s prison tour likely will be limited to critical their criminal histories.
justice system, Obama will meet separately Thursday areas, and those areas will be roped off so that access “Mass incarceration makes our country worse off, and
with law enforcement officials and nonviolent drug is given only to the warden and immediate staff so they we need to do something about it,” he said.
offenders who are paying their debt to society at the can explain what happens there daily. Overly harsh prison sentences, particularly for nonvio-
El Reno Federal Correctional Institution, a medium- “Those hallways will be clear,” Spriggs said. lent drug crimes, are to blame for doubling the prison
security prison for male offenders near Oklahoma City. From shortening the prison sentences of nearly four- population in the past two decades, Obama said. Half a
He’ll be the first sitting president to see the inside of a dozen non-violent drug offenders to advocating the million people were behind bars in 1980, a figure that
federal prison, the White House said. reduction, or outright elimination, of severe mandatory has since quadrupled to its current total of more than
Obama will also be interviewed at El Reno for an minimum sentences to visiting a federal prison, Obama 2.2 million inmates.
upcoming Vice News documentary on the criminal has argued forcefully this week for an alternative to the Obama has expressed hope that Congress will send
justice system. continued lengthy incarceration of people convicted of him legislation to address the issue before he leaves
crimes he said did not fit the punishment. office in 18 months, given the level of interest in the
The goal is usually to keep people with criminal histo- Fourteen of the convicts whose sentences he commuted issue among Republican lawmakers and presidential
ries far away from a president, not to put a president this week had been serving life in prison. candidates.
in their midst. But, as much as it may defy logic, the “If you’re a low-level drug dealer, or you violate your Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a 2016 presidential contender,
controlled environment of a prison is better than many parole, you owe some debt to society. You have to be is pushing to restore voting rights to nonviolent fel-
of the public venues where presidents appear, said held accountable and make amends,” Obama said ons who have served their sentences. Another GOP
Danny Spriggs, a former deputy director of the U.S. in a speech at the NAACP’s annual convention this candidate, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, was giving
Secret Service, which provides the president’s security. week. “But you don’t owe 20 years. You don’t owe a a speech Thursday calling for changes that in part
Who comes and goes from a prison is strictly limited life sentence. That’s disproportionate to the price that would give nonviolent drug offenders a better chance
and everyone’s background is known. should be paid.” at rebuilding their lives.
“It’s better that he goes there than out in the general Obama said taxpayers are the ones left to pay the $80 Spriggs, meanwhile, drew a distinction between vio-
public,” said Spriggs, now vice president of global billion annual cost of locking up people who otherwise lent and nonviolent crimes and said not everyone with
security for The Associated Press. could be in rehabilitative programs for less than the a criminal past is kept away from the president.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said “unique cost of incarceration. Or they could be workers paying “The idea that you keep the president away from all
steps” will be taken to protect Obama during the visit. taxes, or be more involved in their children’s lives, or who have criminal records is ... simply not true,” he
He did not elaborate. be role models and leaders in their communities. said.
ecret Service spokesman Brian Leary said “compre-
ARUBA TRAVELLER - Friday, July 17 2015 11INTERNATIONAL
