Bobby Scott Quotes

Many states can no longer afford to support public education, public benefits, public services without doing something about the exorbitant costs that mass incarceration have created.

At least 80 percent of American prisoners are grossly over-sentenced. The Supreme Court knows this, but shows scant concern for this human side of criminal justice.

America has the longest prison sentences in the West, yet the only condition long sentences demonstrably cure is heterosexuality.

I agree with President Obama and Attorney General Holder that we need to reform our criminal sentencing laws.

I think there are too many people in jail for too long and for not necessarily good reasons.

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.

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

Mandatory minimum sentences give no discretion to judges about the amount of time that the person should receive once a guilty verdict is rendered. Harsh mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses were passed by Congress in the 1980s as part of the war on drugs and the "get tough" movement, sentences that have helped to fuel our nation's prison boom and have also greatly aggravated racial disparities, particularly in the application of mandatory minimum sentences for crack cocaine.

Too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long, and for no truly good law enforcement reason.

Something's going to happen that's going to make us all pay attention at the type of sentences some people are serving and the conditions in which they are served.

We the people say it loud and clear every Election Day, in high-crime periods as well as peaceful stretches - More of our population needs to be behind bars.

We have 1.8 million Americans behind bars today at Local, State and Federal level. In the federal system, which has doubled in the last ten years, over 110,000 people behind bars in the Federal system, probably two-thirds are there for drug related reason.

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

The thing that happens is that politicians run on tough-on-crime rhetoric. You appeal to the public and say, 'Let's put more money into taller fences, tougher laws, tougher sentencing, handcuffs,' and where does that money come from? Well, immediately, it comes out of all the money needed for corrections.

Mandatory minimum sentences should be abolished.

We have 2.2 million people in prison. It’s a national disgrace.

Too many Americans are going to too many prisons for far too long.

Our proclivity for incarceration costs American taxpayers about $80 billion a year. And that doesn’t count the vast indirect costs visited upon the incarcerated, their families and communities.

Manditory minimums were almost always excessive, and they made me feel unethical, even dirty.

The fact that the United States, with less than 5 percent of the world's population incarcerates 25% of the world's prisoners is largly due to manditory minimum sentences.

Every day, lax sentencing costs lives.

Trying to explain the First Step Act in prison reform in a tweet or Facebook post is not easy.

We have to end cash bail.

One of my priorities is criminal justice reform, and there is certainly bipartisan appetite for that. I think we need to eliminate the cash bail system. We need to eliminate mandatory minimums. We need sentencing reform. I think we need parole reform as well.

Our criminal justice system is failing all of us. It is not keeping us safe. It is contributing to a vicious cycle of crime and punishment.