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Tags: bernard kerik | prison reform | criminal justice | kanye west

Bernard Kerik to Newsmax TV: Kanye 'Perfect Person' for Prison Reform

(Newsmax TV's "America Talks Live")

By    |   Thursday, 11 October 2018 02:23 PM EDT

Kanye West "may be the perfect person" to publicly champion prison and criminal justice reform as Congress fails to move on it, former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik told Newsmax TV.

"On the prison reform front, there's nothing more important than someone getting out of the system and being able to obtain housing and being able to obtain a job – a real job where they have real skills and they can go back into the workforce," Kerik told Thursday's "America Talks Live."

"Because if they can't do that, they're going to resort to crime and the recidivism rate is going to jump up and it costs the American taxpayers twice, three or four times as much as it would normally."

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West and NFL Hall of Famer Jim Brown, an African-American civil rights advocate, visited the White House on Thursday for lunch and to work with the Trump administration on prison and criminal justice reform to help unclog U.S. prisons and get convicted felons back on the road to being safe and productive members of society.

"Congress has to do its job, but these days I don't have much faith in Congress doing its job," Kerik told hosts John Cardillo and Dr. Gina Loudon. "The president is going to have to come up with programs and things internally to make sure these people are helped before they get out."

Kerik has firsthand experience on the U.S. prison system, not only as lawman, but an inmate, too. He is author of "From Jailer to Jailed: My Journey from Correction and Police Commissioner to Inmate #84888-054."

Kerik pointed to job shortages in truck driving and other vocational work as places to help "get them back on the road to recovery."

"Don't take young people who could be reformed and turn them into monsters or thugs, because that's what prison does," Kerik said. ". . . I'd say 60-70-80 percent don't want to go back [to jail]. They'd really like a job. They'd really like to take care of their family, but it's up to us to do that.

"That one thing that kills them . . . That felony conviction lies over them like a death sentence until the day they die."

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Newsmax-Tv
As Congress fails to move on it, Kanye West may be "the perfect person" to publicly champion prison and criminal justice reform, according to former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik on Newsmax TV's "America Talks Live."
bernard kerik, prison reform, criminal justice, kanye west
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2018-23-11
Thursday, 11 October 2018 02:23 PM
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