Barack Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit a federal prison on Thursday, amid a push to reform America's expensive and overcrowded correctional system. The president arrived at El Reno Federal Correctional Institution in Oklahoma, where he met officials and inmates and spoke about proposed reforms.
Speaking to reporters after touring the cells, Obama reflected on the people he met there. "These are young people who made mistakes that aren't that different than the mistakes that I made, and the mistakes that a lot of you guys made. The difference is they did not have the kinds of support structures, the second chances, the resources that would allow them to survive those mistakes," reported The New York Times. "If you're a low-level drug dealer, or you violate your parole, you owe some debt to society," Obama said. "You have to be held accountable and make amends. But you don't owe 20 years. You don't owe a life sentence." Mandatory minimums like these should be reduced or eliminated completely, he added.
Obama wants to cut the number of people incarcerated, curb use of solitary confinement and end mandatory minimum sentences. After viewing a small cell that can hold up to three inmates, Obama said: "This is an outstanding institution within the system, and yet they've got enormous overcrowding issues."
The United States jails as many people as the top 35 European nations combined. Black and Latino Americans represent 60 percent of the prison population while around 30 percent of prisoners are white. Around 71,000 minors are also incarcerated in the United States, according to ABC News.
The President has made overhauling the nation's criminal justice system one of his top domestic priorities as his time in office wanes. Support for criminal justice reform has become a rare area of bipartisan interest, drawing support from Democrats and Republicans, including Sen. Rand Paul, a 2016 presidential contender, reports CNN.
