Gov. Gavin Newsom on Prison Reform and Ending Mass Incarceration | The Problem with Jon Stewart

Fear not, America! We're still #1…with incarceration rates among industrialized countries. In our newest episode, “America’s Incarceration Epidemic,” we sat down with California Governor Gavin Newson at San Quentin State Prison to discuss our criminal justice system.

[vultureculture]

Former CO here, rehabilitation and poverty reduction work better than incarceration ever has, and ever will.

Incarceration and punishment do not lower crime rates, they raise them.

[antlerbraum]

Former prison worker here, putting people in inhumane conditions only makes them more likely to do a crime, prisons are themselves rife with crime and all they do is punish the offenders. They don’t actually care if they get rehabilitated because for-profit prisons make money from repeat offenders.

[davidgoldstein]

Let's start with end the privatization of the prison system.

[timpatton]

I wonder how many fewer people would be in prison for crimes right now and how much lower the crime rate would be if we didn't have the war on working people and trickle down economics. The foundation of our country was locked out of the American dream and people were left to pick up the scraps of the rich. The symptoms of this are higher drug use, More crime, Homelessness, Childhood poverty, The list is long. Most of our social problems can be blamed on trickle down economics.

[griigorihabii]

Former inmate here, sometimes you really need to put people behind bars because they are pure evil.

[CzBMusic]

As someone who is currently waiting on my father's murder trial to begin, I could not care less about the humane treatment of prisoners. Who cares about reform, get rid of all people who can't act right.

[DylansPen]

Teach them a trade and how to pay bills and manage a budget, how to handle anger and stress. Prison generally teaches prisoners how to commit more crimes.

[MartaWomack]

My son is sitting in an Oregon prison on drug charges. He lost his mind for a time & was running through the streets of Portland, hallucinating, when he was arrested. Because he didn't know what was happening when the police approached him, he panicked & thrashed around, thinking he was being kidnapped. 15 year sentence for that. I'm his elderly mom, very ill with a heart condition, seizures & I haven't seen my son in years. He's been a good inmate & I need him home more than he deserves to be punished any further. He isn't & never has been a danger to anyone but himself.

[isaac.anthony]

I am disabled, signed by multiple doctors. The county helps me with a food, but our Social Security administration DENY people like me benefits, based upon jobs they say that broken people can do. But these "jobs" are fiction that they literally make up, they don't have to prove that job exists and that you can get hired. NOBODY is hiring physically or mentally broken people. THESE are the people that are homeless on the side of the road. We need to HELP them, instead of putting them in prison for victimless "crimes"

[WinterWitch]

The school to prison pipeline makes far too much money (not to mention the war on drugs) in this country for them to give up their cash cow.

[tammyrobinson]

90% of every inmate in prison has high ACE scores...childhood trauma of some sort. Poverty; abuse in the home of some type, lack of adult support, learning disabilities not addressed. So, it should not be about redemption. It needs to be about getting these hurting individuals proper trauma therapy and social skills. The system causes mire trauma.

[Mrim]

Greatest governor in the union and I'm sure the droves of people fleeing his state would agree.

[aaronleroy]

If they really wanted to do this, they would make it that all convictions are sealed. As soon as you have completed the punishment for those. Either you've served your debt to society or you haven't, but punishing someone for the rest of their life with the curse of recidivism is blatantly against the eighth amendment and just morally wrong. The only time your previous criminal record should count against you is if you're convicted of another crime.

[robertdemitro]

If you truly are going rehabilitate some you must give them tools to do so .

[diegolove]

Anyone in prison for drug possession like small amount should be release

[quintonsm]

I work in a reform prison where prisoners are humanised. Prisoners do better, guards fo better, society does better. You don't go to jail to get punished. Prison is the punishment.

[xkiller]

I made a huge mistake when I was 18. I served 8-1/2 years in prison because of it.
Since my release, the X on my back has continuously been a problem for me.
This, even though it's been 28 years since I committed any crime at all.

[markmyers]

Starts with proper social supports from birth. Universal Health, Living wages, significant paid family leave, strong unions, and worker rights. Eliminate the barriers that make people desperate enough to commit crimes, so the justice system can concentrate on the truly evil ones.

[Someone.Mostly.Irrelevant]

He looks like the rich villain in a superhero movie

[EdwinNY]

Behavior that has no consequences gets repeated!