On Tuesday, President Obama spoke before the 106th national convention of the NAACP calling for the reform of America's criminal justice system. His very appearance whipped the crowd into a frenzy, which was sustained by his comments that today's criminal justice system is as it always has been, "particularly skewed by race and by wealth."
With the audience on their feet, Obama said smugly, "All right, everybody have a seat. I've got some stuff to say." And with that, he began.
The president, who recently commuted the sentences of 46 non-violent drug offenders, said people like them that are behind bars should be out in the workforce, paying taxes, being fathers, mothers and community leaders. "Our nation is being robbed," he said.
Obama highlighted the disproportionate number of blacks and Latinos that are currently serving time in U.S. prisons. While they make up only 30% of the population, they are 60% of the 2.2 million prisoners currently serving time in this country.
"About one in every 35 African American men, one in every 88 Latino men is serving time right now," the President said. Soliciting gasps from the audience, he added, "Among white men, that number is one in 214." He continued:
What is that doing to our communities? What’s that doing to those children? Our nation is being robbed of men and women who could be workers and taxpayers, could be more actively involved in their children’s lives, could be role models, could be community leaders, and right now they’re locked up for a non-violent offense.
The cost to keep America's prisons full is astronomical -- $80 billion. The president suggested a few other ways that money could be spent: universal preschool, doubling the salary of every high school teacher in America, or eliminating tuition at every public college and university.
The bottom line is that in too many places, black boys and black men, Latino boys and Latino men, experience being treated differently under the law. And I want to be clear, this is not just anecdote, this is not barber shop talk. A growing body of research shows that people of color are more likely to be stopped, frisked, questioned, charged, detained. African-Americans are more likely to be arrested. They are more likely to be sentenced to more time for the same crime. And one of the consequences of this is, around one million fathers are behind bars. Around one in nine African American kids has a parent in prison.
So, our criminal justice system isn't as smart as it should be. It's not keeping us safe as it should be. It is not as fair as it should be. Mass incarceration makes our entire country worse off, and we need to do something about it.
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