[ti:Obama Calls for Changes to Criminal Justice System]
[ar:Pete Musto]
[al:In The News]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]President Barack Obama is calling for major changes 
[00:04.91]to the American criminal justice system. 
[00:08.02]He says problems in the current system are ones 
[00:12.96]that the country can no longer ignore.
[00:15.75]"In far too many cases," Mr. Obama said, 
[00:20.03]"the punishment simply doesn't fit the crime." 
[00:23.56]He spoke in Philadelphia this week 
[00:26.57]at a meeting of the National Association 
[00:30.10]for the Advancement of Colored People, the NAACP. 
[00:35.52]The organization works in support of racial equality throughout the United States.
[00:42.16]The president said the US jails as many people as the top 35 European nations combined. 
[00:51.34]Currently, 2.2 million people are held in US prisons. 
[00:58.61]African-Americans and Latinos are jailed for non-violent drug crimes 
[01:04.77]at much higher rates than other groups of people.
[01:08.79]"Our criminal justice system isn't as smart as it should be," Mr. Obama said. 
[01:15.81]"It's not keeping us safe as it should be. 
[01:19.11]It is not as fair as it should be. 
[01:21.48]Mass incarceration makes our country worse off."
[01:26.02]In his speech, the president suggested either changing 
[01:32.17]or removing laws that require courts 
[01:36.43]to give jail sentences as punishment for non-violent drug crimes. 
[01:41.47]He also said there should be more job training programs 
[01:46.51]for people while they are in prison.
[01:49.35]In addition, Mr. Obama announced that the Department of Justice 
[01:55.28]would examine the use of ¡®solitary confinement' in US prisons. 
[02:00.76]This is a method of punishment where prisoners are placed alone 
[02:06.28]in small rooms for long periods. 
[02:09.06]Studies have shown that solitary confinement 
[02:13.45]can have damaging psychological effects on prisoners.
[02:17.84]The president urged Congress to approve a sentencing reform bill by the end of the year. 
[02:25.35]He admitted that many people need to be in prison, 
[02:29.48]among them "murderers, predators, rapists [and] gang leaders." 
[02:35.84]However, he said that in too many cases, 
[02:40.40]those enforcing the law treat young blacks 
[02:44.45]and Latino men differently than white Americans.
[02:47.92]He said African Americans and Latinos received longer jail sentences 
[02:54.91]than whites for similar crimes. 
[02:58.22]"About one in every 35 African American men, 
[03:02.75]and one out of every 88 Latino men, is [in prison] right now,"he added.
[03:09.88]His speech came a day after he commuted the jail time of 46 federal prisoners. 
[03:18.30]Their sentences were reduced or cancelled. 
[03:22.01]Each of the prisoners was sent to jail for a non-violent drug crime. 
[03:27.43]The president's action was part of his effort to reform the criminal justice system.
[03:34.03]The 46 prisoners were in jail for crimes involving the drug crack-cocaine. 
[03:41.92]The minimum time in prison for such crimes 
[03:45.88]is much higher than for crimes related to regular cocaine. 
[03:50.34]Most of the prisoners would already be free if they had been sent to prison today, 
[03:56.80]the Obama administration said. Fourteen were serving life prison sentences.
[04:03.79]"These men and women were not hard criminals," the president said. 
[04:09.39]"I believe, at its heart, America is a nation of second chances, 
[04:15.22]and I believe these [people] deserve their second chance."
[04:20.30]The administration said Mr. Obama would be willing to commute more sentences 
[04:27.95]in the coming months if the conditions were right. 
[04:31.32]"The statistics cannot be ignored. We cannot close our eyes anymore," he said.
[04:39.01]I'm Pete Musto.
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