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Not just good but great move....though he may get some flak for it.
President Barack Obama went behind bars on Thursday — extending his campaign for reform in the criminal justice system — becoming the first sitting president to see the inside a federal prison first hand.
The president visited the sprawling El Reno Federal Correctional Institution in Oklahoma, a complex which includes sections of buildings separated by large green yards and barbed wire fences. While there, he met with six inmates in prison for drug offenses.
"Every single one of them emphasized the fact that they had done something wrong, they are prepared to take responsibility for it, but they also urged us to think about how society could've reached them earlier on in life to keep them out of trouble," the president said.
The president has highlighted inequities in the criminal justice system all week.
Related: Obama Commutes Sentences for 46 Convicted of Drug Offenses
On Monday, he commuted the federal prison sentences of 46 nonviolent drug offenders, 14 of whom were serving life terms. And on Tuesday, in a speech to the NAACP in Philadelphia, Obama argued for shortening or eliminating mandatory minimum sentences for those same offenders, and against solitary confinement.
"We have to consider whether this is the smartest way for us to both control crime and rehabilitate individuals," the president said Thursday. "We have to reconsider whether 20 year, 30 year, life sentences for nonviolent crimes is the best way for us to solve these problems.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/...reform-n393056
President Barack Obama went behind bars on Thursday — extending his campaign for reform in the criminal justice system — becoming the first sitting president to see the inside a federal prison first hand.
The president visited the sprawling El Reno Federal Correctional Institution in Oklahoma, a complex which includes sections of buildings separated by large green yards and barbed wire fences. While there, he met with six inmates in prison for drug offenses.
"Every single one of them emphasized the fact that they had done something wrong, they are prepared to take responsibility for it, but they also urged us to think about how society could've reached them earlier on in life to keep them out of trouble," the president said.
The president has highlighted inequities in the criminal justice system all week.
Related: Obama Commutes Sentences for 46 Convicted of Drug Offenses
On Monday, he commuted the federal prison sentences of 46 nonviolent drug offenders, 14 of whom were serving life terms. And on Tuesday, in a speech to the NAACP in Philadelphia, Obama argued for shortening or eliminating mandatory minimum sentences for those same offenders, and against solitary confinement.
"We have to consider whether this is the smartest way for us to both control crime and rehabilitate individuals," the president said Thursday. "We have to reconsider whether 20 year, 30 year, life sentences for nonviolent crimes is the best way for us to solve these problems.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/...reform-n393056