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The U.S. is supposed to be a nation of second chances, but for the 70 million Americans with a criminal record, we're not doing such a great job. Even among those whose crimes were nonviolent and committed long ago, too many still bear a scarlet letter.

Restoring a person's ability to achieve success when they leave the prison walls promotes public safety, builds our economy and, most importantly, is the right thing to do.

I think we will be safer when we can concentrate law enforcement and criminal justice resources and energies on those individuals who truly need, for the safety of society... to be incarcerated.

Without turning prison life into something more meaningful, prisoners are more likely to reoffend.

It makes a lot more sense for us to be investing in jobs and education rather than jails and incarceration.

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Many of those people deserve to be in prison; however, some of them do not.

One out of 100 citizens of the U.S. is going to prison, and it's not that the system is making criminals, it's that it's making criminals better criminals. We're breeding them like rats and it has to change.

We must renew our efforts to keep our communities safe, from the dangers of terrorists from foreign lands and from common criminals here at home. Let no criminal believe that tough fiscal times will yield an open cell door and a ticket to freedom.

America is the greatest nation ever founded. The ideals are the greatest ever espoused in human history, and we just need the country to live up to them. But what I worry about are the 1 million black men in the prison system.