Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, a strong advocate for reforms to the nation's criminal justice system after serving time in prison, said Saturday that reforms need to be one of the "top five domestic issues on the next president's plate."
"We cannot sustain it at the way it is," Kerik said during a "Washington Journal" segment on C-Span Saturday. "We cannot sustain this economically ... we are creating a second-class citizen in this country and it's destroying the country."
There are some 2016 candidates and other politicians who "get it," said Kerik.
"[Kentucky Sen.] Rand Paul, I will tell you, knows the system, the criminal justice system inside and out," said Kerik. "I sat with him personally for about an hour and a half. He knows the issues, he knows what has to be done."
Former Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton also understands the issues, said Kerik, and "[Utah Republican Sen.] Mike Lee is another one pushing for criminal justice reform."
Kerik had spent 35 years in law enforcement, during which he was a police officer, commissioner, and even the warden of New York's Rikers Island prison for six years, which was one of the most violent jail systems in the country.
"I also, either fortunately or unfortunately, had the distinction of being through — having gone through this law enforcement career, but also spent three years in a federal corrections institution," said Kerik, who has written a memoir,
"From Jailer to Jailed: My Journey From Correction and Police Commissioner to Inmate #84888-054," about his experiences and to make his call for reform.
Kerik commented that often, probes into police departments, such as the one launched Friday by the Department of Justice and Attorney General Loretta Lynch, are needed, although in the case of Baltimore, the investigation is up to the city leaders' discretion.
"I know Loretta Lynch, I have known her for years, and I hope in this case she will be fair and impartial," said Kerik. "Keep in mind, the Baltimore police department has an enormously difficult job. If you look at what has happened since April 27 to today, there have been I think 40 shootings. There is a crime epidemic in Baltimore, rampant crime."
Kerik, though, stands by the record of New York City when it comes to the renewed debate over "broken windows policy," as a way to stem crime before it grows.
Kerik was imprisoned for just over three years after pleading guilty in 2009 following a five-year investigation that was launched in 2004.
"I wrote the book to educate the American public on the flaws and failures that I see in the system," said Kerik. "I have been in this business for 35 years. No one, in the history of this country, with my background, my experience, more importantly, my successes in jail and prison management, no one has ever lived on the inside as an inmate."
The jail system is "creating a permanent underclass of American citizens that no one has really paid attention to or focused on until I started talking about it," Kerik claimed.
Kerik says that once his prison term ended, he met many people who were sentenced to 50 years in prison for crimes that would be misdemeanors on the state level.
And as convicted felons, "their rights are diminished significantly. I do not care what they do once they do their time and pay their so-called debt to society, which in reality is never paid," said Kerik, "... you are punished for life."
As far as police performance, Kerik used to say that about 10 percent of the police department did good work, while "you have a big number that is average, and a small fraction that basically, they take the job because they are looking for job security, or whatever it may be."
But those numbers have changed, said Kerik, and "you have to want the job as a law enforcement officer. It is a job that is a thankless job."
Prison correctional officers are also doing a difficult jobs, said Kerik, but reforms are needed there.
"Correctional officers have a really tough job," he said. "For the most part, they do their job the way they are supposed to."
But there are officers who believe it is their job to "punish you, mentally, physically, degrade you, demoralize you, demean you," he said. "That is not their job."
Kerik is not in favor of prison privatization, however, because often companies want to be guaranteed a percentage rate of occupancy. "This is not a hotel service," he said.
Find Bernard Kerik's new memoir, "From Jailer to Jailed: My Journey From Correction and Police Commissioner to Inmate #84888-054," at Amazon.com.