Barack Obama Quotes

Over the last few years a lot of people have become aware of the inequities in the criminal justice system, right now, with our overall crime rate and incarceration rate both falling, we're at a moment when some good people in both parties, Republicans and Democrats and folks all across the country, are coming up with ideas to make the system work smarter and better.

I've laid out a platform that I think would begin to remedy some of the problems we have in the criminal justice system.

A lot of the problems we have in our criminal-justice system, you know, the problem of over-incarceration, the problem of prosecutorial abuse, the problem of just this sort of mass crop of people, of plea bargains, they all have to do with the system being overloaded. If crime was lower, many of the problems would go away.

I think some parts of the American justice system have gone haywire.

I think it can be shown that the law makes ten criminals where it restrains one.

Given the inefficiencies of what DC laughingly calls the 'criminal justice system,' I think we can safely assume that 95 percent of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal.

I think it's important to encourage young people to tell their own stories and to speak openly about their own experiences with the criminal justice system and the experiences of their family. We need to ensure that the classroom environment is a supportive one so that the shame and stigma can be dispelled.

For too long, the victims of crime have been the forgotten persons of our criminal justice system.

I want to see changes in our criminal justice system.

A lot can be debated about criminal justice and its delivery system.

When we look at our justice system, we have this image of a balancing scale: truth and justice, right and wrong. But for years, our system has been lopsided, where it's not about truth and justice or balance. It's about being tough on crime, and sometimes that means you're putting the wrong person behind bars.

Since 1992 we have made dramatic progress in reducing violent crime.

Boston's justice system is in serious need of reform. Many of its policies and practices are antiquated, expensive, and don't really even make Boston safer.

We are the in midst of a bipartisan moment as it relates to criminal justice reform and dealing with mass incarceration in America which disproportionately impacts the African-American community.

I remember the president-elect [Donald Trump] saying that I'm going to do something to dramatically, positively change communities, particularly in urban areas, and I think we've got to hold his feet to the fire to all those issues as well as all the issues that you addressed, you and many others addressed yesterday as it relates to criminal justice, as it relates to voting oppression.

I think, when the African-American community understands my record on criminal justice, my record on economics, the agenda we're bringing forth, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, dealing with the fact that we have more people in jail, shamefully, than any other country on Earth, that I am against the death penalty, Secretary Clinton is not, I think, as people become familiar with my ideas, we are going to do better and better.

Our criminal justice system has swallowed up too many people I love. I am proud to join the ACLU in the fight to make mass incarceration a thing of the past.

If we're going to talk about mayors, that under the current mayor [of New York in 2016], crime has continued to drop, including murders.

Ending police brutality and mass incarceration. There is a growing left-right support for criminal justice reform.

There's no way you are going to get rid of the Second Amendment, there's no way you're going to get rid of the First Amendment, and people have to understand how important this is. But I think when they see more and more killings, we have to figure out, of course what we are going to do about it. And I don't think the criminal justice system has an answer.

The fate of millions of people—indeed the future of the black community itself—may depend on the willingness of those who care about racial justice to re-examine their basic assumptions about the role of the criminal justice system in our society.

I'm a member of Societies of Former World Leaders. And I've always been sort of in favor of constructive engagement around the world. And Gary Johnson has influenced me on criminal justice reform. I think I had some influence in discussions with him about the approach to international affairs.

Society had a crime problem. It hired cops to attack crime. Now society has a cop problem.

We have to bring back law and order in this country and I think the police are phenomenal people.

Believe me, it is a great deal better to find cast-iron proof that you're innocent than to languish in a cell hoping that the police---who already think you're guilty---will find it for you.