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When you talk about mandatory minimums, it created a lot of unfairness in our sentencing.

No funding for alternative sentencing instead of more prisons.

Throughout the 1970s, '80s and '90s, federal mandatory minimum laws were implemented that forced judges to deliver sentences far lengthier than they would have if allowed to use their own discretion. The result has been decades of damage, particularly to young people.

Mandatory sentencing guidelines have become as complicated and detailed as the IRS code!

Giving a 10-year mandatory minimum for a second offense fist fight is not going to reduce the chance that someone will be stabbed 16 times when you are not funding any of the programs that are desperately needed to actually reduce juvenile crime.

Poor people, people of color - especially are much more likely to be found in prison than in institutions of higher education.

I don't believe we should allow thousands of violent felons to be released early from prison, nor do I believe we should reduce sentences for violent offenders in the future.

You pay a price when you have an objective sentencing system. That is, nothing is perfect.

We should not have drug laws or a court system that disproportionately punishes the black community.

Unfortunately, the elimination of incentives such as parole, good time credits and funding for college courses, means that fewer inmates participate in and excel in literacy, education, treatment and other development programs.