roll of mental health and substance abuse issues. you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. host: good morning, it is tuesday, october 13. here are your morning headlines. , the parliament just negotiated with the u.s. and five other countries. they expected to start rolling back the nuclear program later this month. later, five democratic candidates will be squaring off in their first debate on cnn. the race first speaker of the house, representative paul ryan who is being courted by fellow republicans will not make a decision this week. out, it could be a

10-weight race for the top spot when lawmakers return next week. congress is out of session this week so we are going outside of washington this morning and taking you inside the correctional system. i maximum-security jail about 30 miles from the nation's capital. we will talk about several issues that go along with the jailing inmates and preparing them for life after incarceration. republicans, you can dial in at (202) 748-8001. democrats at (202) 748-8000. and independents (202) 748-8002. send us a tweet if you like, or you can go to facebook.com/cspan

. or send an e-mail to journal@c-span.org. we will get to your thoughts in just a minute, the phone lines are open so start dialing in. they have a piece about criminal justice system and the reform. they say while it was encouraging that republicans talked a little bit about it, they say that some substantive randssion is needed for paul and carly fiorina voicing support for treating drug antics rather than locking them up behind bars. we need to keep these issues in the spotlight. central partust be of the discussion. the criminal justice system impacts all americans, not just the one in three with a criminal record. capacity and 70

million americans are finding it harder to obtain employment and maintain access to housing due to their record. bias in the system also leads to racial disparities and sentencing and incarceration rates. 2009, black man received federal sentences that were 14% longer than those for white men with similar offenses. only 30% of the u.s. population. all the while the united states is spending $80 billion per year unfairneffective, system. need to make changes on the nbc website. they're talking for discussion in the united states.

what would you make of all of this. as we had outside and go about 30 miles to boise maryland, where there is a maximum-security facility at montgomery county and we will talk to folks there about how you go about jailing folks who are in these jails. what sort of facilities they have there. what does that mean? what are they doing to prepare these inmates for life after prison? some facts about this correctional facility, it has the capacity of a little over 1000 inmates, 896 feds are slotted for males. the current population is about 643. 570 males and 73 females. to 30 yearsages 18 old and the population, 61% are

minorities. we're talking about control of dangerous substance, possession and distribution. average sentence length is 112 days. to those at the montgomery correctional facility throughout the washington journal, but first we what you to talk about this. judy and miami, florida, independent. what changes would you make? caller: it should start with juveniles. parents should be forced to pay bail to get them out of jail because now there is no punishment or any kind of system to make parents responsible for their kids. 20% of all crime in community neighborhoods is caused by juveniles. they do a lot of damage. a 20 square block

the, every juvenile between age of 12 and 18 has been arrested. they just go in and out. the parents have to pay bail to , and theyut of jail might be a little more responsible. the government has to stop paying women to have children who cannot support them. they maybe pay for one, but after that -- people know how people get pregnant. -- theould not be paying government should not be rewarding women to make a cottage industry out of having children. host: mario in washington, d.c., democrat. how would you make changes to the criminal justice system? what do you want lawmakers to be discussing? caller: good morning. believe should happen with the institution, having an opportunity to be in at least

three of them, is for the people that are actually ministering programs, something as small as the ge program, that they actually be held accountable. to make sure people are actually learning. so, they didn't do anything to help inmates get educated. they basically pushed it off to other inmates. there wasn't no learning going on. host: you said that you have been incarcerated three times? yeah,: i have been in -- i guess you could say i have been incarcerated twice. i did almost one year sentence, then i did a 3.5 year sentence. i was curious, why do you

think you ended up back in jail? caller: let's start from the beginning of the educational system going on, i was coming through school, me being 33 years old. i wasn't taught anything. i didn't have any skills to go into the world to make anything of myself. a bogus opportunity and jumped on it thinking it would be something good, realizing later that it didn't make sense. host: mario, your first time in jail, is that when you went through the ged program? how did it prepare you for getting out and trying to get a job? is there more than just an education that you need? job -- ged program and job reentry, and a ged that is

two different situations. i was not prepared at all to get a job because i didn't have the skills. even me trying to get my ged, was just a book and it was like read this and every once in a while go over some thing on the board. you had to be self-taught, unless you are driven. it's crazy. what wasn you got out, the most difficult part about transitioning back? caller: no help. now you arek home, on probation. they slapped me with a probation officer doesthe nothing for you. to you for maybe 10 minutes and send you on your way. that is mario in

washington, d.c. his experience with the incarceration system. locked up three times. when we visited the montgomery county correctional facility recently, we talked with a former inmate. carlos colon. this is what he had to say about what advice he would give to others. [video clip] >> to the inmates, i would open up and be willing to take the hope that -- helped that you get. don't close yourself. it might take some time, but you have to be patient. you've got nothing but time, so you have to be willing to let people come help you. for the family, you have to have support. at the end of the day it is just about support. not bringing some of the problems to the individuals locked up. sometimes you make the more worried that if they don't go back to the situation, that

really is not helpful. basically support and be patient with them and try to understand it, the situation in jail is not a great place to be. support is a big thing. and for the politicians, or people in general, don't be so judgment till. just because i committed a crime doesn't mean i don't want to change. at the same time, don't judge us so much. sometimes the judge us just because of what a piece of paper says. a formerlos colon, inmate from that place on your screen. the montgomery county correctional facility just outside of washington. they have a little over 600 inmates right now, capacity for over 1000. male and female, separated. we will go inside this correctional facility later

today and talk with the folks that run it. thestaff that work there, people trying to get these inmates prepared for life after prison. the average sentence length for the montgomery county facility is about 112 days. doug, what is your experience in the correctional system? caller: i work for the federal bureau prisons for 20 years, i have been retired for 17. i had education programs. anas at teacher and also education supervisor. i worked in various institutions, all over the united states. i saw a lot of different programs, and i saw them work well. one of them was, college handled different in

different parts of the country different states in different systems. i don't remember exactly what it was. maybe even 20. they decided that inmates would no longer be eligible for pell grants. they had been drawing on the pell grant system for several years. what this did was effectively knocked out a lot of the college programs. to do itons were able by donations and sometimes the colleges would step up and provide classes. college classes had to be dropped altogether. i think that this would be money well spent. these classes went to people who never even thought about going to college. it, many of them

were relatively successful. an institution in the state of washington that actually had a masters degree program involving three different colleges in the seattle area. you would be amazed at the turnaround that you saw with some of these people. how do you make sure that this money is being used by people who really want that education? did you see it wasted? were these people who were serious about changing their lives? caller: i have to say serious. i spent my entire life in education, and i have never seen the turnaround -- and i have taught in the private sector, state and public colleges and junior colleges. these guys, i guarantee you, were totally into it, the programs. i talked to teachers at local

colleges who said i wished all my kids on the outside were like these guys. host: so, education is one part. we just heard from mario who was in jail three times and said education is one part, but he still wasn't prepared to get a job. when c-span went to the montgomery county correctional facility, sat down with former inmates and the personnel, they told us that you have to teach them how to interview. you have to tell them what to competent,r to sound and to get over their past and possibly get a job. to convince an employer to hire them. caller: absolutely. i was going to say that there is no question this isn't for everybody. vocational training has long been a thing in the federal system. retired, i was involved in prerelease programs. we would call in community , that went on throughout

the year. you actually conducted as there is a workplace or organization and the inmates had to apply for the job. set down for anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes and they went through the mock interview and that was one of the best real-life programs i have ever seen done and i participated in it. >> what was your success rate? caller: i had no idea because most of the people in the federal system go back to their homes. very little follow-up. host: i have another question for you. of nationalddition review, their cover story is about changes to the criminal justice system. the author ofo this piece tomorrow but he

writes this, another important component of punishment should be work. it is madness that they spent years of state-sponsored idleness punctuated by sporadic brutality. it is time to reveal protection era -- to require payment of prevailing wage rates to prisoners making prison industries unprofitable. all able-bodied prisoners should have to complete their educations, and work learning good work habits as well as marketable skills. one could even experiment without serious violent tendencies use in the military as routine. host: as you may know in the federal -- caller: as you may know in the federal system, with the exception of the few places on 24-hour lockdown, all of the inmates have to work. they all have to obtain their ged, and they are all supposed to make an attempt at attaining a marketable skill. this has nothing to do with the fact that they have a job.

they do have to work. host: we will go to bertha in birmingham, alabama. tell us what you are experiencing? caller: i have had a son that was in the system but my main thing with that is that a lot of these young people have not been properly educated. enough sportse activity or some of the others for them to get involved without causing them to get into it. i think we need to incorporate some of that in their so that we can kind of get a lot of these people from the correctional facility. host: what was the biggest challenge for your son? trying to reenter society? hirer: they don't want to

anybody who has been in the correctional facility. they understand the record that they have. my son is doing well right now, but he still is having problems trying to get hired on permanently. cdl license that he cannot use because he was in a correctional facility. host: we will talk about all of those issues with some staff from the montgomery correctional facility outside of washington later this morning. what they do it this facility to try to prepare those inmates that are there for life after jail. we will go next to justin. c-span.org i want to say --

caller: i want to say thank you for c-span. i have a couple of points in reference to the most recent i would haveller, to say most employers don't want to hire inmates because of their past, but probably because of the reputation that is held with the correctional capacity of these facilities. it is like many of the callers realsaid, there is no positive reputation for rehabilitation. incarceratedargest population in the entire world and when you look at those incarcerations, over 60% of them are due to substance abuse. is, i think say that the mass incarceration policy in this country is very dangerous. snowball as we

see more drugs. there are two sides to the story. you have to have pharmaceuticals. issue with character these people. it is a chemical issue. a lot of them are in disparaging situations and the only avenue of theey have, because shortcomings of our education system is to turn to crime. they have no other way of making a living. we have the economy to blame for that, maybe we have culture to blame for that. without pointing fingers to say, i think we need to see more treatment of substance abusers and less incarceration. recidivism rates are insane when you talk about substance abusers. littles really very success there.

i think that is a huge tragedy. host: i will share this story with you, a recent one from "the washington post." is what theceration outgoing education secretary had to say recently. he appealed to the nation to dramatically reduce incarceration for nonviolent to useand he proposed the estimated $15 billion in savings to substantially raise teacher pay in high poverty schools. he argued that such a move would help us wait strong teachers to work with the students who most need them and would signal that the country cares about educating disadvantaged children. education, perhaps not as many people turning to crime and being put in jail. laire in pontiac, michigan, good morning to you. tell us about your experience. or, clarence.

go ahead. i was incarcerated in the michigan department of corrections for three years. basically, coming through and coming back to society, being and be, trying to jobs able to get education with certain things and starting -- certain grants, once you have a criminal record they keep holding you back so it is almost a condition of slavery. that you know we are experiencing once we enter back into society. unless you actually know somebody, or summary puts you at a position that you can leap and go over what the restraints are, you will be in a minimal position in society. that's not fair to a person that comes home. they say that the recidivism rate is so high, but your suppressed at every angle. host: when you say, keeps people

at a lower level, in what way specifically? lower wages? menial lower wages, jobs. when a man comes home from the penitentiary, if you put yourself in the position. you fill out applications for this and say, i had drug cases so i was not eligible for certain jobs because of drug cases. i was convicted of a ccw. i was suppressed because they say i am violet, but everything -- violent, but everything i did happened over 15 years ago. so my record still follows me from 2010 now. host: how many different jobs have you had? caller: i have had several different jobs. fortunately, i have been blessed that i have family members that own company so i was able to receive employment from some of them. for the people that are not,

your put in a position where, you come home and you have no jobs so you have no finances. you are not having somewhere to stay. the things that make you a person and society that is successful, you are being held back. they are putting them in a different perspective, what am i supposed to do. they fall back in line with what they know or what they have seen. host: how old were you? were you put in prison and for how long? caller: in prison from 2005 to 2008. i was 27 years old when i went. host: why do you think it happened? why did you turn -- when you are in fen you are in for basically, coming from the inner-city, the education wasn't there. people were talking about ways

to go to college. society was basically pushing you that way. after going to prison and getting knowledge of my own, that place myself in a position to educate myself, i have seen that that wasn't the way. it has to start in the schools early on. you get school districts now where they can shop for schools and people take their kids away from schools and put them in the suburbs. then, the grant money goes to the suburbs, and this infrastructure suffers. so the kids might even be educated up to the standards they should be brought to. host: randall in stevensville, texas, independent. share your thoughts. caller: i want to share about our former governor. the substance abuse punishment program. guardwas an armed prison

-- they could not have weapons. they were there and visible all the time. 24/7. everybody in america needs to know, people and communities need to know what prisoners are going through. when you keep on doing what you are doing, you're going to keep getting what you're getting. this thing is political. justey is education, not for the incarcerated inmates, but we need to be sure that we always expand and keep going. the little program head start. what we will talk later on we said with some folks over at the montgomery county correctional facility about how talking about getting a

job after they are released, but how do you convince employers to hire these inmates that are about to be put back into society? all of that will be talked about here as we continue with your phone calls. i want to share this headline with you though that the supreme court will decide on sentences for prison lifers. this will be a case that the supreme court hears today. the case they are hearing today is whether or not this will apply retroactively to folks in prison now who killed when they are teenagers. arelways, we told you they

running and parliament earlier today passing a bill that approves the iran nuclear deal. earlier, the iran government will start rolling back the nuclear program earlier -- later this month. also about that washington post reporter being held for what was yesterday 444 days. the uranian government -- iranian government convicti ng him of espionage. editorials, and editorial board waiting in on that saying it is a ludicrous verdict in iran, and it will standingsiran's internationally as it tries to court businesses to come into iran because of this nuclear deal. , theyll street journal

become belligerent in the wake of the deal. the timing that will not escape history is the 144th day of his captivity, the number of days that u.s. diplomats spent in iran to talk following the 1979 islamic revolution. zalan's conviction three days later is the mullah equivalent of mailing a dead fish to an adversary. democrats will be squaring off today in their first debate. washington times front page this morning says this about hillary clinton's last appearance on the debate stage in 2008. mrs. clinton took the stage for a presidential debate, she was against insects marriage and ward behind theira iraq vote. and sherward to tuesday en